2003 – Publication Years

Retirement Effects of Social Security Reform

June 14, 2018
Uncategorized

Saving for Retirement: Wage Growth and Unexpected Events

June 14, 2018
Retirement, retirement savings

We found that there is a perception of ‘under-saving’ for retirement among many individuals. Individuals who perceive they have saved inadequately attribute this mainly to having insufficient income. Under a lifecycle model of consumption with a known income path this…

Labor Supply Responses to Social Security

June 14, 2018
Uncategorized

The Impact of Diabetes on Work-force Participation: Results from a National Household Sample

June 14, 2018
Disability, Health, Health and Retirement Study, Labor force participation

Background. Diabetes is a highly prevalent condition with substantial associated morbidity. The economic impact of diabetes is dramatic, with estimated total costs of $98 billion in 1997. We sought to investigate the effects of diabetes on work-force participation, including absenteeism,…

The German Public Pension System: How it Was, How it Will Be

June 14, 2018
International, pensions, Social Security

Germany still has a very generous public pay-as-you-go pension system. It is characterized by early effective retirement ages and very high effective replacement rates. Most workers receive virtually all of their retirement income from this public retirement insurance. Costs are…

Stochastic Forecasts of the Social Security Trust Fund

June 14, 2018
Retirement, Social Security

We present stochastic forecasts of the Social Security trust fund by modeling key demographic and economic variables as historical time series, and using the fitted models to generate computer simulations of future fund performance. We evaluate several plans for achieving…

Who Becomes a Stockholder? Expectations, Subjective Uncertainty, and Asset Allocation

June 14, 2018
Financial well-being, Health and Retirement Study

We develop a model of portfolio selection with subjective uncertainty and learning in order to explain why some people hold stocks while others don’t. We model heterogeneity in information directly, which is an alternative to the existing explanations that emphasized…

Key Equations in the Tuljapurkar-Lee Model of the Social Security System

June 14, 2018
Retirement, Social Security

We present stochastic forecasts of the Social Security trust fund by modeling key demographic and economic variables as historical time series, and using the fitted models to generate computer simulations of future fund performance. We evaluate several plans for achieving…

Disability Benefits as Social Insurance: Tradeoffs Between Screening Stringency and Benefit Generosity in Optimal Program Design

June 14, 2018
Disability, Disability insurance

The Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) system is designed to provide income security to workers in the event that health problems prevent them from working. In order to qualify for benefits, applicants must pass a medical screening that is intended…

Widowhood, Divorce, and Loss of Health Insurance Among Near Elderly Women: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study

June 14, 2018
Family dynamics, Health, Health and Retirement Study, Retirement

We have found modest effects of widowhood events on loss of health insurance. There are also modest effects of widowhood on labor supply, which we have not as yet attempted to attribute to insurance demand. Even new widowhood events, however,…