2006
How to Integrate Disability Benefits into a System with Individual Accounts: The Chilean Model
WP 2006-111 , UM05-13
Chile offers an innovative approach to disability insurance within a multi-pillar social security system. The individual’s retirement savings account is used as part of his disability insurance, but if he becomes disabled the account is topped up enough to finance…
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Another Attempt at Social Security Reform
Popular discussions of Social Security often focus on competing plans--this person’s approach to Social Security would change x, y, and z; that person’s approach would change x or y but not z, and so on. This policy brief focuses on…
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Baby Boomer Retirement Security: The Roles of Planning, Financial Literacy, and Housing Wealth
WP 2006-114 , UM05-09
Recent research on wealth and household finances seeks to blend neoclassical models with an understanding of real-world imperfections to answer questions about why some people save and others do not. This paper focuses on Baby Boomers standing on the verge…
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The Inattentive Participant: Portfolio Trading Behavior in 401(k) Plans
WP 2006-115 , UM06-06
Most workers in defined contribution retirement plans are inattentive portfolio managers: only a few engage in any trading at all, and only a tiny minority trades actively. Using a rich new dataset on 1.2 million workers in over 1,500 plans,…
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Social Security Replacement Rates for Alternative Earnings Benchmarks
WP 2006-116 , UM05-01
Social Security reform proposals are often presented in terms of their differential impacts on hypothetical or ‘example’ workers. Our work explores how different benchmarks produce different replacement rate outcomes. We use the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to evaluate how…
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Public Health Insurance and SSI Program Participation Among the Aged
WP 2006-117 , UM05-16
Previous researchers have noted that the ‘categorical’ Medicaid eligibility accompanying the welfare programs Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) often far exceeds the value of these programs’ cash benefits. It may be the case…
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Savings, Portfolio Choice, and Retirement Expectations
WP 2006-119 , UM05-14
Studying household investment behavior is essential for understanding the full consequences of old age social security benefits. Using data from six waves of the Health and Retirement Study, we analyze the dynamics of portfolio composition before respondents start claiming social…
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The Impact of Misperceptions about Social Security on Saving and Well-being
WP 2006-118 , UM05-10
Earlier research suggests that many people in their fifties and early sixties are not well informed about their Social Security benefit entitlements in old age. This paper investigates the effect of deviations between individuals’ anticipated and realized Social Security benefits…
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The Role of Conventional Retirement Age in Retirement Decisions
WP 2006-120 , UM05-11
Following Wave I HRS respondents for six waves (12 years) so that their actual retirement can be observed shows that the actual retirement hazard is substantially higher at (and around) the age that workers identified in Wave I as the…
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Social Security and Retirement Dynamics
WP 2006-121 , UM05-05
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…
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