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2024
Working Papers
Although Social Security benefits are gender neutral, survivor benefits may lead to opposite claiming-age incentives for many husbands and wives. The typical wife’s survivor benefit rises with the age at which her husband claims his retired-worker benefit. Yet, it...2023
Working Papers
Survivor benefits insure spouses with low lifetime earnings, following the death of a higher-earning spouse. We focus on three factors that influence the availability and magnitude of survivor benefits and differ for women by race and ethnicity: trends in marriage;...2024
Working Papers
U.S. employers and the federal government devote more than 1.5% of GDP annually toward promoting defined contribution retirement saving. We study the distributional and lifetime impact of these savings incentives across racial groups using a new employer-employee...2024
Working Papers
A large research literature attests to the important role of work in human health. Less research has investigated the potential role of work environments as a key factor shaping racial and ethnic health disparities. Work environments that are physically demanding,...2024
Working Papers
The Social Security Amendments of 1983 raised the full retirement age (FRA), the age at which claimants receive an unreduced monthly benefit, from 65 to 67. However, this change was gradually implemented, with the first increase from 65 to 66 phased-in between 2001...2024
Working Papers
Because the older population are net lenders, they tend to be economically vulnerable to high and increasing inflation. This research used data from the Health and Retirement Study and its supplement, the Consumption and Activities Mail Survey, to assess the effects...2023
Working Papers
Between 1965 and 1981, Social Security extended eligibility for dependent benefits from age 18 to age 22 for individuals who were enrolled full-time in school. The “student benefit” ended in 1981, and past research has shown that the benefit’s elimination greatly...2023
Working Papers
We use the 2014 and 2018 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation to assess multiprogram participation — the number of public programs or subsidies that an individual is a beneficiary of at a given time. Our aim is to understand the combined reach of...2023
Working Papers
Take-up gaps in safety net programs, which have been long documented in the United States and elsewhere, are an important policy question as nontake-up compromises the equity objectives and efficacy of programs. The Social Security Disability program is an example of...2023
Working Papers
Although the Social Security Administration already provides information to the general public in Spanish, these efforts could be further bolstered by a better understanding of how best to reach the more than 20 million individuals with limited English proficiency...2023
Working Papers
Using data from the Health and Retirement Study linked to administrative Medicare and Medicaid records, along with the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, we examine how total and out-of-pocket medical expenditures by retired households vary across race, both annually...2023
Working Papers
Rural communities face specific challenges to accessing information about government safety net programs that can provide essential assistance to reduce urban-rural inequalities and contribute to the rural economy. This mixed-methods study examines these challenges,...2023
Working Papers
Most households enter retirement as homeowners and only sell after a spouse enters a nursing home or dies, with recent retirees having greater housing wealth but also greater mortgage debt. We show that the share of homeowners entering retirement with mortgages...2023
Working Papers
This project examines whether there exists a link between occupational segregation by race and labor market outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. We estimate the extent to which workers employed in occupations with higher concentrations of Black workers were more...2023
Working Papers
This paper reviews different approaches to estimating differences in economic outcomes across groups defined by race, with a focus on whether and how covariates such as education are incorporated in these analyses. My review focuses on the economics literature, but...2023
Working Papers
Using longitudinal data from the Understanding America Study (UAS) covering the onset and aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, we examine the evolution of sex and racial/ethnic disparities in employment status and work arrangements. We document differences across...2023
Working Papers
We examine how the pandemic has influenced Americans’ short-term financial security and future retirement stability using longitudinal survey data from the Understanding America Study (UAS), spanning the period May 2018 to May 2022. We find that while, on average,...2023
Working Papers
The pandemic led to a sharp increase in unemployment, which, in previous literature, has been associated with a decline in the labor supply of older individuals: Unemployed persons retire rather than attempt to return to employment. But government programs softened...2023
Working Papers
Online access to government services and benefits has become increasingly prevalent, but a substantial portion of low-income, disabled individuals live without a home broadband connection. We study how the launch of a large-scale broadband subsidy program affected...2023
Working Papers
Existing studies find that COVID-19 disproportionately affected the employment and financial security of minoritized workers. However, few studies have examined the employment and financial impact of COVID-19 among different groups of older workers. Furthermore, there...