pensions

Underfunded Public Sector Pension Plans, Social Security Participation, and the Retirement Decisions of Public Employees

• April 13, 2022
• Susan Barnes
• pensions, Program interaction, Social Security

Underfunded Public Sector Pension Plans, Social Security Participation, and the Retirement Decisions of Public Employees

• August 12, 2021
• Susan Barnes
• benefit claiming, OASDI trust funds, pensions, Retirement

I analyze the effects of public pension parameters, Social Security coverage, and state pension fund sustainability on the retirement of public employees. I use data from the Health and Retirement Study, including personal early and normal retirement eligibility and state…

Public Pension Design and Household Retirement Decisions: A Comparison of the United States and Germany

• May 28, 2021
• Susan Barnes
• benefit claiming, International, Labor Supply, OASDI trust funds, Older workers, pensions, Retirement

Social Security provides retirement benefits to age-eligible workers and their spouses. Benefits are permanently increased if initial receipt is delayed. For benefits paid to spouses, these incentives reflect a complex interaction of the worker’s and spouse’s earnings histories, benefit claiming…

2019 Key Findings

• May 26, 2021
• Susan Barnes
• Administrative data link, Disparities, Financial well-being, Interest Rates, International, Labor Supply, Long-term care, Medicaid, Medicare, Mortality trends, OASDI trust funds, Occupational Requirements Survey, pensions, Totalization

Winter 2020 Newsletter: MRDRC releases key findings from 2019 papers

• March 9, 2020
• Susan Barnes
• Interest Rates, IRA withdrawals, Labor force participation, Mortality trends, News, pensions, Retirement, Totalization

MRDRC published eight working papers in 2019 on topics such as totalization agreements, global interest rate trends, and retirement inequality. Informing projections Interest Rate Trends in a Global Context Dmitriy Stolyarov and Linda Tesar WP 2019-402; UM19-05 Two methodologies are…

How Reliant are Older Americans on State and Local Government Pensions?

• November 22, 2019
• Susan Barnes
• pensions, retirement savings

How Would 401(k) ‘Rothification’ Alter Saving, Retirement Security, and Inequality?

• November 22, 2019
• Susan Barnes
• benefit claiming, pensions, retirement savings

How Reliant are Older Americans on State and Local Government Pensions?

• November 15, 2019
• Susan Barnes
• Financial well-being, pensions

State and local government pension plans cover about 19.5 million participants, and many participants are heavily reliant on these pensions for retirement income. Most of these plans, however, are underfunded. Based on data from the Health and Retirement Study, we…

Underfunded Public Sector Pension Plans, Social Security Participation, and the Retirement Decisions of Public Employees

• November 4, 2019
• Susan Barnes
• Health and Retirement Study, pensions

Abstract: This research compares the retirement choices and economic well-being of public sector employees who are covered by Social Security to those who are uncovered. I use a data set of public employees from 12 waves of the HRS that…

How Would 401(k) ‘Rothification’ Alter Saving, Retirement Security, and Inequality?

• November 1, 2019
• Susan Barnes
• pensions, Retirement, retirement savings, Social Security

The U.S. has long incentivized retirement saving in 401(k) and similar retirement accounts by permitting workers to defer taxes on contributions, levying them instead when retirees withdraw funds in retirement. This paper develops a dynamic life-cycle model to show how…