Older workers

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Effects of COVID-19 on Job Separation and Financial Precarity

October 25, 2022
Susan Barnes
COVID-19, Disparities, Financial well-being, Health and Retirement Study, Labor force participation, Older workers, poverty

Drawing on Health and Retirement Study data collected in 2021, we will examine racial differences in the COVID-19 pandemic’s consequences on financial security. We hypothesize that, relative to their white counterparts, Black and Hispanic older workers were more likely to…

The Role of Physical Job Demands and the Physical Work Environment in Retirement Outcomes

June 6, 2022
Susan Barnes
Labor force participation, O*NET, Occupational Requirements Survey, Older workers, Retirement

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

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…