Projects

Abstract: This research compares the retirement choices and economic well-being of public sector employees who are covered by Social Security to those who are uncovered. I use a data set of public employees from 12 waves of the HRS that…

Adjustments to benefits for individuals who delay claiming are designed to reward work and ensure equitable treatment between those who delay and those who claim early. Over the past 20 years, Social Security claiming ages have increased and become more…

This paper aims to quantify the effects of each Social Security totalization agreement that the United States has established since the late 1970s. We combine the recently developed synthetic control method with event-study analyses by constructing, for each country of…

Social Security totalization agreements affect a number of economic agents in a variety of ways. We propose to develop a cost-benefit framework of totalization agreements to facilitate the comparison of these effects and their assessment from a cost-benefit perspective. This…

Traditional Medicare imposes significant cost-sharing on beneficiaries. Most but not all beneficiaries obtain supplemental insurance – through Medigap, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, or employer-sponsored retiree coverage – but these policies vary in how well they protect against the risk of high…

We will estimate the total, Medicare, Medicaid, and out-of-pocket medical expenditures among the elderly across the income gradient. We will assess the risk of medical spending and how it is reduced through Medicaid and Medicare. We will also estimate the…

Financial product complexity has increased substantially in the past few decades and recent evidence suggests that older adults are entering retirement with more debt than previous generations. This project will examine how cognitive ability and cognitive aging are related to…

Dementia, a chronic, degenerative disease characterized by deteriorating cognition, represents a particularly aggressive threat to older adults’ financial well-being.  Dementia-linked adverse financial events have the potential to deteriorate retirement savings, increasing financial strain and potentially demand for Medicaid and Supplemental…

Long-term care is one of the most significant risks Americans face in late life. About a third of Americans older than age 70 need help with Activities of Daily Living, requiring either a nursing home or community- and home-based care.…

The proposed research will identify the causes and disability consequences of prescription opioid and benzodiazepine use among Americans older than 50, including the role of state prescription drug policies in the use and effects of these drugs. These drug classes…