Disparities

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Is the Adjustment of Social Security Benefits Actuarially Fair, and If So, for Whom?

Disparities in Social Security claim ages have risen since the early 1990s. With high earners increasingly likely to delay claiming, and also living longer on average than lower earners, late claimants may differ in critical ways from early claimants. Using…

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Labor-market shocks and historically-disadvantaged-groups’ access to SSI and SSDI

SSI and SSDI uptake are important mechanisms for workers with disabilities adjusting to negative shocks in the labor market. In this project, we aim to determine the extent to which structural barriers have excluded historically disadvantaged groups disproportionately affected by…

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Understanding Racial Disparities in Financial Preparedness for Retirement

To understand racial disparities in retirement age and financial preparedness, we construct a model of labor supply, retirement, and savings over the life cycle where all parameters, including preferences for time and risk and the stochastic processes of marriage, fertility,…

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Work and Retirement for Older Black and Hispanic Adults

Growing United States income inequality and the increasing aging of Black and Hispanic populations point to greater risks of financial insecurity for older populations in coming years. Research on retirement determinants for Blacks and Hispanics is limited. We propose to…

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Investigating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Provision of Workplace Accommodations

Accommodations improve the employment outcomes of people with disabilities, although there are racial (and possibly ethnic) disparities in accommodation receipt. This project will investigate the effect of occupation, industry, and other factors on these disparities.

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An Analysis of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Knowledge about Social Security Programs and Their Consequences

Imperfect knowledge of public programs influences take-up and can lead to suboptimal decisions. This project will quantify differences in Social Security program knowledge across race and ethnic groups. We will then estimate the relationship between these knowledge differences and observed…

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The Effect of Racial Disparities on Entitlement to Social Security Survivor Benefit and Widow Poverty

When Social Security survivor benefits exceed a surviving spouse’s own retired-worker benefits, it helps keep many surviving spouses out of poverty. Yet, access to survivor benefits differs by race by virtue of differences in marital histories, as well as in…

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How Does Social Security Affect the Racial Wealth Gap?

The literature on the United States’ wealth inequality has three major shortcomings. First, the literature is focused on wealth concentration at the very top, ignoring differentials across most of the wealth distribution. Second, the literature mostly ignores the wealth differentials…

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Extending RAND HRS Poverty Measures to Earlier HRS Waves

The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is the primary data set in the U.S. for the study of the well-being of the older population. A common indicator of material hardship used in research and in the administration of various government…

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Social Security Wealth, Inequality, and Life-cycle Saving: An Update

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