Projects

Using administrative data, this project will quantify the incentive effects and equity of the Social Security survivor benefit. The project will first analyze incentive effects on the timing of initial claiming of retired-worker benefits by both spouses. The survivor benefit…

We will use data about early- and midlife adversity from the Health and Retirement Study, including the new Life History Mail Survey, to examine the effects of adverse experiences on retirement due to disability. We hypothesize that early- and midlife…

My Social Security (mySSA) is a key online resource offered by the Social Security Administration, providing users with a single access point to all SSA electronic services. While ostensibly an accessible and useful tool that can save users a significant…

Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS), this project will estimate a dynamic model of medical spending and how medical spending shocks affect the wealth and insurance purchases of older Americans.…

We propose to use new data from the 2019 wave of the Consumption and Activities Mail Survey to help interpret the observed decline in spending as individuals age. At one extreme, forward-looking individuals optimally chose the decline; at the other,…

A single person in a nursing home is relatively well protected financially, because Medicaid covers nursing home expenses once assets are depleted. Couples, however, are less well protected. For them a great financial threat is that one spouse moves to…

Understanding how households’ living standards transition as they move into and through retirement is crucial for the design of Social Security. A key indicator of whether households have adequately saved to maintain living standards in retirement is how their consumption…

Many older adults engage in self-employment, yet little is known about the nature of these activities due to a lack of data on work ranging from occasional gig employment to contract work to business ownership. The implications of such arrangements…

This study aims to identify the contextual and social predictors of elder fraud victimization. By identifying the mechanisms and timing of susceptibility, the study will inform the delivery of targeted interventions that reduce fraud vulnerability and prevent victimization.

This project will use data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to study whether workers who suffer permanently disabling injuries covered by Workers Compensation (WC) subsequently end up on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). If this occurs, then the…