UM09-01: Reconciling Findings on the Employment Impact of Disability Insurance
In this project we will examine survey data from multiple waves of the Survey of Income and Program Participation spanning the 1990s linked to administrative records from Social Security Administration to directly evaluate previous work suggesting that the dramatically increased…
UM09-02: How common is “parking” among SSDI beneficiaries?
We will produce empirical evidence on the extent to which SSDI beneficiaries work but restrain their earnings sufficiently to retain benefits, through an analysis of the impact of the 1999 SGA increase on earnings of beneficiaries having completed their Trial…
UM09-03: Adjusting Social Security Unfunded Liability for Risk
This proposal would apply what are now standard modern asset-pricing techniques to determine the current market value of Social Security’s liability to current retirees and workers assuming the future prevalence of current policy. The arbitrage pricing theory (APT) demonstrates how…
UM09-04: What Replacement Rates Should Households Use?
We examine the implications of economic theory for replacement rates. Common financial planning advice calls for households to ensure that retirement income exceeds 70 percent of average preretirement income. We will use an augmented life-cycle model of household behavior to…
UM09-05: Buffering Shocks to Well-Being Late in Life
Long lifetimes expose retirees to increasing risks of shocks to their well-being, including shocks to health and the ability to live independently. These risks loom at least as large as rate-of-return and longevity risks. This research will use the Health…
UM09-06: Models of Endogenous Retirement and the Labor Supply Effects of Social Security
This proposal seeks to use general equilibrium models to assess the quantitative effects of social security programs on labor supply in general, and on retirement behavior in particular. Central to the analysis is the formulation of models that generate endogenous…
UM09-07: 401(k) Plan Investment Efficiency: Who Are the Winners and Why?
Though millions of US workers have 401(k) plans, few studies evaluate participant investment performance. Using data on over 1,000 401(k) plans and their participants, we identify key portfolio investment inefficiencies and attribute them to offered investment menus versus individual portfolio…
UM09-08: The Level and Risk of Out-of-Pocket Health Care Spending
Although the level and distribution of out-of-pocket spending for health care are important components in understanding economic preparation for retirement and for the estimation of economic choice models under uncertainty, there has been no systematic evaluation of the quality of…
UM09-09: How Do Pension Changes Affect Retirement Preparedness?
This study will analyze changes in pensions in HRS panel data and their implications for total retirement wealth and income replacement rates in retirement. Gainers and losers will be identified and differences in outcomes distinguished by place in the earnings…
UM09-10: Financial Literacy and Financial Sophistication: Evidence from the 2008 HRS
Financial literacy is lacking among older individuals in the United States and financial sophistication can be even scarcer. Given that individuals are increasingly required to take on responsibility for their financial well-being after retirement, this lack of knowledge has become…