2023
UM23-Q2: Mixed-method Study on Information, Communications, and Access to Government Benefit among Rural Populations
Federal and state benefits provide essential assistance to reduce urban-rural inequities and indirectly contribute to the rural economy. Yet, while participation in benefits programs is higher among rural than urban residents, gaps remain in benefit access in rural areas. Little…
UM23-Q3: Barriers and Communications Preferences of Rural Populations: A Scoping Review
This scoping review of the literature on communications and service-related barriers faced by individuals living in rural areas when seeking government benefits will examine the current research on this topic and identify differences by sociodemographic groups within rural populations.
2022
UM22-01: Tracking Changes in the Composition of Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplement Security Income Following the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically altered Americans’ health and work in ways that may trigger significant changes in the size and composition of disability program participation. In this project, we use Social Security Administration data to study trends in beneficiary…
UM22-02: Retirement Pensions and Disability Insurance for the 21st Century
This project will estimate the degree of disability risk among the older than 50 population in the United States and England, and evaluate joint reforms of disability insurance and retirement pension programs in a dynamic model of labor supply, social…
UM22-03: The Effect of the Americans with Disabilities Act on Supplemental Security Income
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was introduced in 1990 with the goal of protecting disabled workers. While a number of studies have examined the ADA’s impact on the disabled individuals’ employment, it is important to also understand its impact…
UM22-04: The Role of Physical, Cognitive and Interpersonal Occupational Requirements and Working Conditions on Disability and Retirement
This proposed research project is an expansion of the MRDRC grant UM21-05, where we investigated the role of physical occupational requirements on retirement transitions using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and from the first wave of the…
UM22-05: How Will COVID-19 Excess Mortality Affect Social Security Benefit Payouts?
This project will estimate the impact of excess mortality resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic on projected Social Security benefits and elderly income. COVID-19 mortality is higher at older ages and highest among those with pre-existing health conditions, so some people…
UM22-06: Nontraditional Work, Nontraditional Workers, and the Implications for Social Security
We use six panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation to measure the short- and long-term financial security of individuals who have earnings from nontraditional work, such as side self-employment, side business, and platform-based earnings (i.e., Uber). We…
UM22-07: The Effect of COVID on Expected and Actual Labor Supply and Social Security Claiming Among Older Workers
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the working conditions of many U.S. workers. Some lost their jobs either temporarily or permanently, others switched to telework, while essential workers continued working on-site at the risk of becoming infected with the virus. The pandemic…
UM22-08: Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 on Economic and Retirement Security
The COVID-19 pandemic has had enormous effects on the United States labor market, disproportionately affecting women’s careers. In this project, we will use survey data collected before and during the pandemic to (1) analyze the impacts of the pandemic and…