2006 – Publication Years

Men With Health Insurance and the Women Who Love Them: the Effect of a Husband’s Retirement on His Wife’s Health Insurance Coverage

June 14, 2018
Health, Health and Retirement Study, Medicare, Retirement

Health insurance coverage in the years prior to retirement is particularly important because it protects the household from the financial risks of uninsurance as well as the health consequences of delaying care while uninsured. While results from the retirement “job…

Understanding Trading Behavior in 401(k) Plans

June 14, 2018
Behavioral economics

We use a new database covering 1.2 million active participants to study trading activities in 1,530 defined contribution retirement plans. Descriptive statistics and regression analysis indicate some interesting trading patterns. First, we show that trading activity in 401(k) accounts is…

Alternative Measures of Replacement Rates

June 14, 2018
Life-cycle model, Retirement

This study finds that on average those just past the usual retirement age are adequately prepared for retirement in that they will be able to follow a path of consumption that begins at their current level of consumption and then…

Discouraged Workers? Job Search Outcomes of Older Workers

June 14, 2018
Health and Retirement Study, Older workers

Many have suggested we adopt policies that explicitly encourage the elderly to work. Behind this suggestion is the assumption that if an older person desires a job, one will be found; however, little is known about the extent to which…

How Did the Elimination of the Earnings Test Above the Normal Retirement Age Affect Retirement Expectations?

June 14, 2018
Health and Retirement Study, Retirement, Social Security

This study examines the effect of the 2000 repeal of the earnings test above the normal retirement age on retirement expectations of workers aged 51 to 61 – their probabilities to work past age 62 and 65 as well as…

Probabilistic Thinking and Early Social Security Claiming

June 14, 2018
Behavioral economics, Social Security

This study analyzes the extent to which an individual’s survival expectations influence his or her decision to claim social security benefits at an early age. We find that subjective survival probabilities capture meaningful behavioral responses to incentives for early Social…

Labor Market Status and Transitions during the Pre-Retirement Years: Learning from International Differences

June 14, 2018
Uncategorized

Many western industrialized countries face strong budgetary pressures due to the aging of baby boom generations and the general trends toward earlier ages of retirement. The commonality of these problems has the advantage of offering an empirical laboratory for the…

How Accurate are Expected Retirement Savings?

June 14, 2018
Retirement, retirement savings

This paper examines the ability of workers nearing retirement to report their expected retirement savings, where retirement savings refers to funds held in savings, checking, and investment-type accounts. Responding to such a question is likely to be difficult, even for…

How Changes in Social Security Affect Retirement Trends

June 14, 2018
Health and Retirement Study, Retirement, Social Security

For married men, we find the conventional view of retirement trends -- that the long term trend to early retirement has been reversed -- is partially contradicted by recent data. Specifically, descriptive data collected from both the Census and the…

Americans’ Dependency on Social Security

June 14, 2018
Behavioral economics, Financial well-being, Social Security

According to a recent estimate by Gokhale and Smetters (2005), the present value difference between the U.S. government’s projected future expenditures and its projected future tax receipts exceeds $60 trillion. Closing this enormous fiscal gap requires a variety of different…