2012

This proposal seeks to use SSA’s Continuous Work History Sample (CWHS) data to study the effect of technological progress on the earnings for workers of different ages, in particular, older workers nearing retirement. Prior work by Laitner and Stolyarov used…

This paper studies the impact of income and payroll taxes on intensive and extensive labor supply decisions for workers ages 55-74 using the Health and Retirement Study. The literature provides little guidance about the responsiveness of this population to tax…

The goal of the project is to study long-run labor force participation (LFP) trends of older and younger workers in a unified framework to determine the importance of common, relative to age-specific, factors. The analysis would develop a set of…

This paper specifies three behavioral variants of a structural model of retirement and saving to bring predicted Social Security claiming rates closer to the rates observed in the data. The model, estimated with Health and Retirement Study data, is used…

The life-cycle model of household behavior forms the basis for most economic analysis of Social Security, private pensions, and retirement. This project seeks to extend the usefulness of the life-cycle model by considering the role of middle-class inheritances and bequests.…

Forming realistic expectations about future Social Security benefits is critical to successful retirement planning.  We propose to use new panel data on Social Security expectations to (i) assess the degree of individuals’ uncertainty about their future Social Security benefits and…

Policy changes intended to delay retirements of older workers and extend their work lives may run up against demand-side barriers from age discrimination, and supply-side barriers owing to rising physical challenges of work as people age.  We study three questions. …

Social Security benefits are currently provided as a lifelong benefit stream, though some workers would be willing to trade a portion of their annuity streams in exchange for a lump sum amount. This paper explores whether allowing people to receive…

We develop a model of health investments and consumption over the life cycle where health affects longevity, provides flow utility, and retirement is endogenous. We develop a rich, numerical life-cycle model to study the complex interrelationship between health and wealth…

A review of the literature suggests that when pension values are measured by the wealth equivalent of promised DB pension benefits and DC balances for those approaching retirement, pensions account for more support in retirement than is suggested when their…