2021
UM21-17: Assessing the Economic Impact Payment in the Older Population
This project will use data collected by the Health and Retirement Study in its 2020 wave to study awareness and impact of the Economic Impact Payment stimulus on different groups of older Americans during the coronavirus pandemic.
UM21-Q1: Mixed-methods Analysis of Consumer Fraud Reports of the Social Security Impostor Scam
Despite the growing prevalence of Social Security impostor scams, there has been no academic research on this subtype of fraud. One problem is that general sample surveys do not ask respondents about the individual subtypes of government impostor scams they…
UM21-Q2: Expansion of Simplified Totalization Agreements
The United States has signed 30 bilateral social security agreements. Other partner countries, such as the United Kingdom or Germany, have signed international agreements to eliminate double taxation for nationals working temporarily abroad in more than 50 other countries. This…
UM21-Q3: Adding New Variables to the RAND HRS Longitudinal File to Better Support Research on Disability
In September 2020, the MRDRC held a data development workshop on “Disability Research with the Health and Retirement Study,” where researchers highlighted the importance and richness of the HRS for the study of disability, but identified some challenges to using…
UM21-Q4: Estimating the Impact of Missing Totalization Agreements
The number of international social security agreements (totalization agreements) signed by the U.S. is significantly smaller than the number signed by other countries such as Canada and the U.K. This paper aims to estimate the impact of the missing totalization…
UM21-Q5: Extending RAND HRS Poverty Measures to Earlier HRS Waves
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…
2020
UM20-01: Understanding Trends in DI Applications with Survey and Administrative Data
The decision to apply for DI is based on the interplay between one’s health, the demands of one’s job, employer accommodations, and the ability to find a new job that better matches health status and job demands. In the proposed…
UM20-02: Education and Return to Work Among Veterans
We will use data from Veteran’s return to work after disability onset to describe how age and education affect work. This will give SSA information that could improve the disability determination process (help make more accurate determinations using a vocational…
UM20-03: The Changing Nature of Work
After decades of growth, since 2010 both applications and awards for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) have steadily declined. This decline in SSDI applications has not been accompanied by an improvement in overall health as measured in national surveys. Conceptually,…
UM20-04: Forecasting survival by socioeconomic status and implications for Social Security benefits, Year 2
Individuals with higher socioeconomic status tend to live longer than those with lower SES. The gap in survival rates has widened in recent decades, potentially affecting aggregate Social Security payouts. In prior research we forecast mortality stratified by SES using…