2009 – Publication Years

Social Security Literacy and Retirement Well-Being

June 14, 2018
Financial well-being, Life-cycle model, Retirement, Social Security

We build upon the growing literature on financial literacy, which studies the prevalence of lack of knowledge about various financial issues, and analyze how much people know about the Social Security rules using a small pilot survey conducted in 2007,…

Investor Behavior and Fund Performance under a Privatized Retirement Accounts System: Evidence from Chile

June 14, 2018
International, pensions, Retirement, retirement savings

In the U.S. and in Chile, there have been heated debates about the relative merits of a decentralized privatized pension system relative to a more traditional social security system. On the firm side, there are concerns that pension funds engage…

Income, Material Hardship, and the Use of Public Programs among the Elderly

June 14, 2018
benefit claiming, Health, Health and Retirement Study, Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income

I use data from the 2006 Health and Retirement Study to analyze the determinants of material hardship among individuals ages 65 and older. Ten percent of the elderly report hardship – defined here as cutting back on food or medications because…

Gain and Loss: Marriage and Wealth Changes Over Time

June 14, 2018
Family dynamics, Health and Retirement Study

Family composition has changed dramatically over the past 25 years. Divorce rates increased and remarriage rates declined. While considerable research established a link between marriage and earnings, far less is empirically understood about the effect of marriage on wealth although…

The Displacement Effect of Public Pensions on the Accumulation of Financial Assets

June 14, 2018
pensions, Retirement, retirement savings

The generosity of public pensions may depress private savings and provide incentives to retire early. While there is plenty of evidence supporting the latter effect, there remains considerable controversy as whether or not public pensions crowd out private savings. This…

Financial Literacy among the Young

June 14, 2018
Financial well-being

We examined financial literacy among the young using data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. We showed that financial literacy is low among the young; fewer than one-third of young adults possess basic knowledge of interest rates, inflation,…

Work Disability, Work, and Justification Bias in Europe and the U.S.

June 14, 2018
Uncategorized

To analyze the effect of health on work, many studies use a simple self-assessed health measure based upon a question such as “do you have an impairment or health problem limiting the kind or amount of work you can do?”…

The Efficiency of Pension Menus and Individual Portfolio Choice in 401(k) Pensions

June 14, 2018
pensions, Retirement, retirement savings

Though millions of US workers have 401(k) plans, few studies evaluate participant investment performance. Using data on over 1,000 401(k) plans and their participants, we identify key portfolio investment inefficiencies and attribute them to offered investment menus versus individual portfolio…

Social Security Literacy and Retirement Well-Being

June 14, 2018
Uncategorized

We build upon the growing literature on financial literacy, which studies the prevalence of lack of knowledge about various financial issues, and propose to analyze how much people know about the Social Security rules using both a small pilot survey…

How Do Pension Changes Affect Retirement Preparedness? The Trend to Defined Contribution Plans and the Vulnerability of the Retirement Age Population to the Stock Market Decline of 2008-2009

June 14, 2018
pensions, Retirement

Our findings suggest that although the consequences of the decline in the stock market are serious for those approaching their retirement, the average person approaching retirement age is not likely to suffer a life changing financial loss from the stock…