2006
UM06-23: Using New Measures of Fatness to Improve Estimates of Early Entry onto the OASI Rolls
Obesity is rapidly rising, as are the medical conditions associated with it. We test whether fatness has a causal impact on early retirement and entry onto OASI rolls using a model of instrumental variables, in which the fatness of a…
2005
UM05-01: Social Security Eligibility, Benefit Levels, and Replacement Rates in the HRS
Social Security reform proposals are often presented in terms of their differential impacts on hypothetical workers with a range of lifetime earnings. Our work will explore how different concepts of replacement rates influence benefit outcomes, and how these are in…
UM05-02: Retirement, Saving, Benefit Claiming and Solvency Under A Partial System of Voluntary Personal Accounts
This project will examine behavior under a partial system of voluntary personal accounts and analyze implications for the Social Security system. Questions to be addressed include: What determines participation in a partial system of voluntary personal accounts? How will these…
UM05-03: Understanding Global Aging
This proposal responds to SSA’s interest in global aging by developing a dynamic, general equilibrium, life-cycle simulation model of demographic change in the U.S., EU, Japan, China, and India. The model, a prototype of which exists, incorporates fertility reductions, lifespan…
UM05-04: Technological Progress and Worker Productivity at Different Ages
This project will use 1950–90 Census data to test whether the effects of technological progress are specific to young workers or general to workers of all ages. Which model holds is very important. If the specific model is more valid,…
UM05-05: Social Security and Retirement Dynamics
This project will explain the relation of specific features of Social Security, such as benefit amounts, the early entitlement age, the normal retirement age and the earnings-test parameters, to the full range of retirement outcomes – continued work on the…
UM05-06: Enhancing Data Quality through Longitudinal Imputation: Studies of the Income and Asset Data from HRS and AHEAD
This project continues work done over the past several years on the assessment of data quality in the HRS and AHEAD surveys, eventually intended to result in a set of longitudinally consistent data files for these surveys. Much of the…
UM05-07: Secure Data Environment and Development of Remote Data Access Facilities
The MRRC will continue to support a secure data environment at the Institute for Social Research, (the Data Enclave), where researchers can analyze Social Security administrative files without risking a breach of confidentiality. While this is an important resource, travel…
UM05-08: Consumption and Economic Well-Being at Older Ages
As society faces difficult choices about allocating its resources among different age groups, measuring each group’s needs accurately is imperative. Consumption is a much more direct measure of economic well-being than income; yet income is almost universally used to measure…
UM05-09: Planning, Financial Literacy, and Retirement Wealth
Many Americans are poorly informed about their Social Security and pensions and confront substantial shortfalls in retirement wealth. To better understand how workers plan and save for retirement, we have devised a special module for the 2004 Health and Retirement…