Conference Papers

Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) is the nation’s most important public support for the working-age population with disabilities. The health of this population is a key driver of enrollment and spending in the DI program and the related Supplemental Security…

Awards of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits to disabled workers increased rapidly and then declined in the decade after the Great Recession began. We hypothesize that the recession initially accelerated awards to workers who would have worked longer and…

A number of the most prevalent mental illnesses lead to significant cognitive dysfunction.  They can have important impacts on attention, working memory, executive function, processing speed, and social cognition. These dysfunctions translate into impairments in skills that are known to…

Both wealth and mortality inequality have recently increased, which may lead to greater aggregate Social Security payouts because individuals with greater annual benefits tend to live longer. An important question is whether this trend in mortality inequality will continue. We…

This report provides an empirical analysis of the impact of the minimum wage on DI claims and awards. It draws on data from the Social Security Administration’s State Agencies Monthly Workload (MOWL) Dataset, from which a state-by-year panel of DI…

This project explores the causes behind the recent decline in the Labor Force Participation (LFP) rate. The analysis examines the evolution of the LFP rate for different demographic groups to gauge the effect of demographic changes. An integral part of…

We examine trends in retirement income across the 1930-1941 birth cohorts using a 5% random sample from IRS tax data, comprising 22.6 million person-years. An advantage of our analysis is that we do not rely upon survey reports of income,…

This project explores whether the use of payday loans among Social Security and Supplemental Security Income recipients affect their financial well-being. Specifically, it studies the borrowing behaviors of low-wealth OASDI and SSI beneficiaries who rely on alternative financial services, such…

There is little agreement on the question of whether U.S. households are well-prepared for retirement. We revisit this debate using the Consumption and Activities Mail Survey (CAMS) linked to the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to better understand the dynamics…

For many people, working after beginning retirement benefit collection is a way to enhance financial security by increasing income.  Existing research has shown that retirees are sensitive to the Social Security earnings test, which restricts the amount of earnings some…