2006 – Publication Years

Probabilistic Thinking and Early Social Security Claiming

June 14, 2018
Uncategorized

The Importance of Objective Health Measures in Predicting Early Receipt of Social Security Benefits: The Case of Fatness

June 14, 2018
Uncategorized

Theoretical models argue that poor health will contribute to early exit from thelabor market and the decision to take early Social Security retirement benefits (Old-Age or OA benefits). However, most empirical estimates of the causal importance of health on the…

The Excess Burden of Government Indecision

June 14, 2018
Uncategorized

Governments are known for procrastinating when it comes to resolving painful policy problems. Whatever the political motives for waiting to decide, procrastination distorts economic decisions relative to what would arise with early policy resolution. In so doing, they engender excess…

How Accurate are Expected Retirement Savings?

June 14, 2018
Uncategorized

Alternative Measures of Replacement Rates

June 14, 2018
Uncategorized

The Gender Impact of Alternative Social Security Policies

June 14, 2018
Uncategorized

As Social Security reform is considered in the United States, one of the recurring issues is likely to be the impact on women of various proposed changes. This Policy Brief summarizes the reasons why the same pension system may have…

Optimizing the Retirement Decision: Asset Allocation, Annuitization, and Risk Aversion

June 14, 2018
Retirement

Retirees must draw down their accumulated assets in an orderly fashion so as not to exhaust their funds too soon. We derive the optimal retirement portfolio from a menu that includes payout annuities as well as an investment allocation and…

Social Security and Retirement Dynamics

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

This paper is based on a structural model of retirement and saving, estimated with data for a sample of married men in the Health and Retirement Study. It explains the relation of specific features of Social Security -- the benefit…

The Excess Burden of Government Indecision

June 14, 2018
Life-cycle model, Social Security

Governments are known for procrastinating when it comes to resolving painful policy problems. Whatever the political motives for waiting to decide, procrastination distorts economic decisions relative to what would arise with early policy resolution. In so doing, they engender excess…

Savings Between Cohorts: the Role of Planning

June 14, 2018
Health and Retirement Study, Retirement, retirement savings

We compare the saving behavior of two cohorts: the Early Baby Boomers (EBB, age 51-56 in 2004) and the HRS cohort (age 51-56 in 1992). We find that EBB have accumulated more wealth than the previous cohort but they benefited…