2007
Life-Cycle Models: Lifetime Earnings and the Timing of Retirement
WP 2007-165 , UM07-16
After dropping for a century, the average retirement age for U.S. males seems to have leveled off in recent decades. An important question is whether as future improvements in technology cause wages to rise, desired retirement ages will resume their…
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2006
Consumption and Economic Well-Being at Older Ages: Income- and Consumption-Based Poverty Measures in the HRS
WP 2006-110 , UM05-08
According to economic theory, well-being or utility depends on consumption. However, at the household level, total consumption is rarely well measured because its collection requires a great deal of survey time. As a result income has been widely used to…
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On the Covariance Structure of Changes in Consumption in the Health and Retirement Study
WP 2006-112 , UM05-S1
Using generalized method of moments on the covariance matrix, I test three models of consumption change on constructed consumption data from the Health and Retirement Study. Meant as a first step towards estimating life-cycle effects of subjective survival probabilities on…
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The Effect of Unfolding Brackets on the Quality of Wealth Data in HRS
WP 2006-113 , UM05-06
A characteristic feature of survey data on household wealth is the high incidence of missing data—roughly one in three respondents who report owning an asset are unable or unwilling to provide an estimate of the exact amount of their holding.…
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How to Integrate Disability Benefits into a System with Individual Accounts: The Chilean Model
WP 2006-111 , UM05-13
Chile offers an innovative approach to disability insurance within a multi-pillar social security system. The individual’s retirement savings account is used as part of his disability insurance, but if he becomes disabled the account is topped up enough to finance…
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Baby Boomer Retirement Security: The Roles of Planning, Financial Literacy, and Housing Wealth
WP 2006-114 , UM05-09
Recent research on wealth and household finances seeks to blend neoclassical models with an understanding of real-world imperfections to answer questions about why some people save and others do not. This paper focuses on Baby Boomers standing on the verge…
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The Inattentive Participant: Portfolio Trading Behavior in 401(k) Plans
WP 2006-115 , UM06-06
Most workers in defined contribution retirement plans are inattentive portfolio managers: only a few engage in any trading at all, and only a tiny minority trades actively. Using a rich new dataset on 1.2 million workers in over 1,500 plans,…
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Social Security Replacement Rates for Alternative Earnings Benchmarks
WP 2006-116 , UM05-01
Social Security reform proposals are often presented in terms of their differential impacts on hypothetical or ‘example’ workers. Our work explores how different benchmarks produce different replacement rate outcomes. We use the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to evaluate how…
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Public Health Insurance and SSI Program Participation Among the Aged
WP 2006-117 , UM05-16
Previous researchers have noted that the ‘categorical’ Medicaid eligibility accompanying the welfare programs Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) often far exceeds the value of these programs’ cash benefits. It may be the case…
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Savings, Portfolio Choice, and Retirement Expectations
WP 2006-119 , UM05-14
Studying household investment behavior is essential for understanding the full consequences of old age social security benefits. Using data from six waves of the Health and Retirement Study, we analyze the dynamics of portfolio composition before respondents start claiming social…
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