Older workers

Heterogeneity in Self-Employment and the Transition to Retirement among Older Adults in the United States

• April 13, 2022
• Susan Barnes
• Financial well-being, Health and Retirement Study, Older workers, Self-employment

The fraction of workers who are self-employed increases with age, but the types of self-employment that older workers do and the effects of this work on their well-being is not well understood. This project examines such heterogeneity by considering how…

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

• April 13, 2022
• Susan Barnes
• benefit claiming, Mortality trends, Older workers, Retirement, Social Security

The Changing Nature of Work

• June 16, 2021
• Susan Barnes
• Disability, Labor force participation, O*NET, Occupational Requirements Survey, Older workers

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…

Recent Trends in Disability and the Implications for Use of Disability Insurance

• April 21, 2020
• Susan Barnes
• Demographic trends, Disability, Disability insurance, Health, Labor force participation, Older workers, Supplemental Security Income

Firm Willingness to Offer Bridge Employment

• November 4, 2019
• Susan Barnes
• Older workers, Second career

While there is some research on the prevalence of bridge employment and partial retirement behavior from the worker perspective, we have no evidence about firms’ ability and willingness to accommodate worker demands for job amenities as they transition into retirement.…

Money isn’t everything—at least for older workers

• October 15, 2019
• Susan Barnes
• Older workers, Retirement, Second career, Uncategorized, Unretirement

In 2015, Nicole Maestas, Kathleen J. Mullen, David Powell, Jeffrey Wenger, and Till von Wachtner fielded two surveys. One asked respondents about their working conditions; the second asked about their preferences for certain job characteristics. The nine working conditions were…

How are older workers’ employment prospects affected when there are fewer younger workers?

• July 17, 2019
• Susan Barnes
• Labor Supply, Older workers, Uncategorized

“This [project] is prompted by a question I’ve been asked by many reporters, which is ‘With larger, older cohorts and relatively scarce younger workers, will employers shift to employing more older workers for one reason or another?’” investigator David Neumark…

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

Understanding Job Transitions and Retirement Expectations Using Stated Preferences for Job Characteristics

• May 23, 2019
• Susan Barnes
• Older workers, Second career