Financial well-being

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Effects of COVID-19 on Employment Disruption and Financial Precarity

• September 13, 2023
• Susan Barnes
• COVID-19, Financial well-being, Health and Retirement Study, Retirement

Existing studies find that COVID-19 disproportionately affected the employment and financial security of minoritized workers. However, few studies have examined the employment and financial impact of COVID-19 among different groups of older workers. Furthermore, there is limited information on how…

Insurance Purchases of Older Americans

• July 7, 2023
• Susan Barnes
• Financial well-being, Health and Retirement Study, Health reform, Medicaid, Medicare

Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) matched to administrative Medicare and Medicaid records, and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), we estimate the determinants of Medigap insurance purchases of older Americans. Our data and framework allow us…

Changes in the Composition of Disability Insurance Applicants and Recipients in the Wake of the Coronavirus Epidemic

• June 2, 2023
• Susan Barnes
• COVID-19, Demographic trends, Disability insurance, Financial well-being, Health, Labor force participation

Despite concerns that the enormous economic and health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic would increase Social Security disability benefit claiming, applications dropped during the first nine months of the pandemic. This paper uses Social Security Administration data on new program…

How Does Social Security Affect the Racial Wealth Gap?

• May 25, 2023
• Susan Barnes
• Disparities, Financial well-being, Social Security

The large and persistent gap by race in U.S. household wealth is a well-established empirical fact, though the causal mechanisms for wealth differentials are still a subject of much debate. Previous research on wealth inequality has shown that expanding the…

Key findings on ethnic, gender, and racial disparities

• May 3, 2023
• Susan Barnes
• COVID-19, Demographic trends, Disability, Disparities, Financial well-being, Health, Older workers

RAND HRS Poverty Measures for HRS 1994

• April 9, 2023
• Susan Barnes
• Disparities, Financial well-being, Health and Retirement Study, poverty

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…

Risk of Large Medical Expenditures at Older Ages and Their Impact on Economic Well-being

• March 1, 2023
• Susan Barnes
• Financial well-being, Health, Medicaid, Medicare, Retirement, retirement savings

We study out-of-pocket (OOP) medical expenditure risk of the U.S. population ages 55 and older using data from the Health and Retirement Study and its supplemental survey on household spending. We document trends in individual-level OOP spending from 1998 to…

Traditional and Nontraditional Earnings: Demographic, Financial, and Beneficiary Patterns

• March 1, 2023
• Susan Barnes
• Financial well-being, Labor Supply, Older workers, retirement savings, Self-employment

We use the 2014 and 2018 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation to create a schema of earnings that come from employee and nonemployee sources. Traditional earnings are from a job or incorporated business, while nontraditional earnings…

Assessing the First Economic Impact Payment in the Older Population Using the Health and Retirement Study

• February 28, 2023
• Susan Barnes
• Behavioral economics, COVID-19, Family dynamics, Financial well-being, Health and Retirement Study

Work and Retirement of Older Black and Hispanic Adults

• February 28, 2023
• Susan Barnes
• Disparities, Financial well-being, Health, Older workers, Retirement