Projects

Economists have two standard models for analyzing private saving in a macroeconomic context. In one, the so–called overlapping generations, or life–cycle, framework, households save to smooth their lifetime consumption — quintessentially, to maintain their standard of living after their earnings…

This project will examine the effects on retirement and saving of firm side factors, including minimum hours constraints, layoffs, job requirements, informal pressures to retire, job accommodations, retirement windows, and pension rules affecting payment when partially employed. Reduced form and…

This proposal is on the SSA identified priority research areas (5) “international research on pension and Social Security issues” and (6) “distributional aspects of proposed Social Security reforms” and will target reform areas related to expected participation in voluntary plan…

This paper evaluates how workers might invest their Personal Retirement Account (PRA) funds between safe and risky assets, depending on whether they are offered a rate of return guarantee on the risky asset. We focus on how asset allocation decisions…

In this paper, I examine the financial situation of older households. In addition, I examine whether employers’ initiatives to reduce planning costs via retirement seminars have an effect on workers’ saving. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, I…

In 1981 Chile adopted its new multi-pillar system, which featured privately managed individual accounts. Starting in 1983 payouts from the accounts were permitted and detailed rules about payouts were put in place. The Chilean scheme therefore gives us an opportunity…

Several categories of medical expenditures are not covered by Medicare, including rescription drugs, most nursing home stays, and extended hospital visits. Out-of-pocket costs for these items can be substantial, and what’s more, they are likely to be concentrated at the…

This paper uses panel data from the Health and Retirement Study to estimate the relationship between measures of labor supply flexibility and portfolio-choice decisions by utility-maximizing individuals. Seminal research on portfolio decisions over the life-cycle, and recent research on stochastic…

The simple one-good model of life-cycle consumption requires “consumption smoothing.” However, British and U.S. households apparently reduce consumption at retirement and the reduction cannot be explained by the life-cycle model. An interpretation is that retirees are surprised by the inadequacy…

This paper tests the Rational Expectations (RE) hypothesis regarding retirement expectations of married older American couples, controlling for sample selection and reporting biases. In prior research we found that individual retirement expectation formation was consistent with the Rational Expectation hypothesis,…