benefit claiming

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

• June 17, 2021
• Susan Barnes
• benefit claiming, Financial well-being, International, Retirement, Social Security, Social Security spousal benefits

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…

The Impact of Growing Health and Mortality Inequalities on Lifetime Social Security Payouts

• January 11, 2021
• Susan Barnes
• benefit claiming, Demographic trends, Health and Retirement Study, Mortality trends, OASDI trust funds

The prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and other health problems has increased in recent decades in the United States, and there is a growing gap between the health and longevity of individuals with high socioeconomic status (SES) and low SES. These…

Which Households Benefit from Delayed Claiming?

• December 16, 2020
• Susan Barnes
• Administrative data link, benefit claiming, OASDI trust funds

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…

Subjective Expectations, Social Security Benefits, and the Optimal Path to Retirement

• April 22, 2020
• Susan Barnes
• Behavioral economics, benefit claiming, retirement savings, Social Security

Latent Work Capacity and Retirement Expectations

• November 22, 2019
• Susan Barnes
• benefit claiming, Cognition, Disability, Disability insurance, Health

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

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

Is the Adjustment of Benefits Actuarially Fair?

• November 4, 2019
• Susan Barnes
• benefit claiming, Financial well-being

Adjustments to benefits for individuals who delay claiming are designed to reward work and ensure equitable treatment between those who delay and those who claim early. Over the past 20 years, Social Security claiming ages have increased and become more…

2018 Key Findings

• July 15, 2019
• Susan Barnes
• Administrative data link, Affordable Care Act, Behavioral economics, benefit claiming, Cognition, Financial well-being, Health and Retirement Study, Health reform, International, Labor force participation, Labor Supply, Life-cycle model, Long-term care, Medicaid, Medicare, Mortality trends, OASDI trust funds, Older workers, Payroll taxes, pensions, Program interaction, retirement savings, Second career, Social Security, Social Security program communications, Social Security reform, Social Security spousal benefits, Supplemental Security Income, Totalization, Veterans

How Would 401(k) Rothification Influence Consumption, Saving, and Social Security Claiming Behavior?

• November 29, 2018
• Susan Barnes
• benefit claiming, pensions, retirement savings, Social Security reform

The US incentivizes retirement saving in 401(k) and similar retirement accounts by permitting workers to defer taxes on contributions; taxes are then levied only when retirees withdraw their funds. Yet the Treasury foregoes over $100B/year due to tax-deferred contributions to…