2013 – Publication Years

The Assets and Liabilities of Cohorts: The Antecedents of Retirement Security

June 14, 2018
Health, Retirement

How Family Status and Social Security Claiming Options Shape Optimal Life Cycle Portfolios

June 14, 2018
Family dynamics, Life-cycle model, Retirement, Social Security, Social Security spousal benefits

Cognitive Ability, Expectations, and Beliefs about the Future: Psychological Influences on Retirement Decisions

June 14, 2018
Behavioral economics, Cognition, Retirement

Social Security Benefit Claiming and Medicare Utilization

June 14, 2018
Disability insurance, Health and Retirement Study, Medicare, Social Security

The Assets and Liabilities of Cohorts: The Antecedents of Retirement Security

June 14, 2018
Health, Retirement

This paper uses repeated cross-sectional data from the Surveys of Consumer Finances (SCF) to characterize cohort patterns of net worth and debt of American households. Cohort patterns provide a useful benchmark for identifying potentially vulnerable households based on relative financial…

Expectations and Household Spending

June 14, 2018
Behavioral economics

We estimate the effect of expectations about unemployment on household spending using high-frequency panel data from the RAND American Life Panel. The data were collected during the Great Recession and its aftermath, a time of great economic uncertainty. We use monthly…

Does Retirement Induced through Social Security Pension Eligibility Influence Subjective Well-being? A Cross-Country Comparison

June 14, 2018
Financial well-being, Health, pensions, Retirement, Social Security

How does retirement influence subjective well-being? Some studies suggest retirement does not affect subjective well-being or may improve it. Others suggest retirement adversely affects it. This paper aims at advancing our understanding of the effect of retirement on subjective well-being by (1)…

What Do Data on Millions of U.S. Workers Say About Life Cycle Income Risk?

June 14, 2018
Life-cycle model

This paper sheds new light on individual labor income risk using a unique and confidential dataset from the Social Security Administration on individuals' earnings histories. The substantial sample size allows us to cut the data in different and novel ways…

Health Insurance and Retirement Decisions

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

We develop a rich model to study the complex interrelationship between health insurance and retirement decisions. The decision to retire depends on a number of factors including availability of health insurance, health shocks, pensions, Social Security, and how consumption and…

Costs and Benefits of In-Kind Transfers: The Case of Medicaid Home Care Benefits

June 14, 2018
Long-term care, Medicaid

Many large government programs provide benefits in kind as opposed to in cash. Providing benefits in kind potentially distorts decisions and leads to a deadweight loss if recipients value the benefits less than a cost-equivalent cash transfer. Yet providing benefits…