Center for Retirement Research http://crr.bc.edu Thu, 23 May 2013 20:48:09 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Characteristics and Employment of Applicants for Social Security Disability Insurance Over the Business Cycle http://crr.bc.edu/working-papers/characteristics-and-employment-of-applicants-for-social-security-disability-insurance-over-the-business-cycle-2/ http://crr.bc.edu/working-papers/characteristics-and-employment-of-applicants-for-social-security-disability-insurance-over-the-business-cycle-2/#comments Wed, 15 May 2013 15:42:18 +0000 Stephan Lindner http://crr.bc.edu/?p=15309 Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between fluctuations in the short-term unemployment rate and characteristics of applicants for Social Security Disability Insurance.  Using administrative records of the universe of applicants between 1991 and 2008, we find that almost all of the increase in applications and allowances during recession periods is due to increasing applications and allowances of people whose applications are either rejected or determined by vocational factors.  People who apply during economic downturns also have lower income and assets at the time of application and lower earnings several years after application.  Further decomposition results suggest that difficult macroeconomic conditions during the time of application account for the negative relationship between the unemployment rate and post-application earnings and employment.

]]> http://crr.bc.edu/working-papers/characteristics-and-employment-of-applicants-for-social-security-disability-insurance-over-the-business-cycle-2/feed/ 0 Public Sector Workers and Job Security http://crr.bc.edu/briefs/public-sector-workers-and-job-security/ http://crr.bc.edu/briefs/public-sector-workers-and-job-security/#comments Tue, 14 May 2013 14:48:23 +0000 Alicia H. Munnell http://crr.bc.edu/?p=15273 The brief’s key findings are:

  • State and local government employment dropped sharply during the Great Recession, unlike in previous recessions, and continues to decline even today.
  • But this decline in public sector employment was less severe than that experienced by the private sector.
  • Being a state/local worker reduced the probability of job loss by 2 percentage points, after controlling for education and other characteristics.
  • While this relative job security is an attractive aspect of state/local employment, it is not enough to tip the balance of total compensation in favor of public workers.
]]> http://crr.bc.edu/briefs/public-sector-workers-and-job-security/feed/ 0 2013 Sandell Grant Program Recipients http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/2013-sandell-grant-program-recipients/ http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/2013-sandell-grant-program-recipients/#comments Mon, 06 May 2013 18:31:19 +0000 Amy http://crr.bc.edu/?p=15170 Ayse Akincigil
The Economic Burden of Out-of-Pocket Medical Expenditures Before and After the Implementation of Medicare Prescription Drug Program

Lauren Hersch Nicholas
Public Costs of Hard Work: Lifetime Job Characteristics and Retirement Behavior

Keith Jacks Gamble
The Causes and Consequences of Financial Fraud Victimization Among Older Americans

Enrichetta Ravina
Individual Allocations and the Quality of the Investment Options in 401(k) Portfolios

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]]> http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/2013-sandell-grant-program-recipients/feed/ 0 2013 Dissertation Fellowship Recipients http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/2013-dissertation-fellowship-recipients/ http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/2013-dissertation-fellowship-recipients/#comments Mon, 06 May 2013 18:26:08 +0000 Amy http://crr.bc.edu/?p=15197 Mark Borgschulte
Faculty Retirement and Mortality: The University of California Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Programs

Portia Cornell
Financing Long-Term Care: The Potential Role of the Long-Term Care Partnership Program

Itzik (Yizhak) Fadlon
The Effects of Retirement on Health

Robert Hiltonsmith
The Causes and Effects of Leakage from 401(k) Accounts

Laszlo Sandor
Behavioral Responses to Wealth Shocks: Evidence from Sweden

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]]> http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/2013-dissertation-fellowship-recipients/feed/ 0 The Economic Burden of Out-of-Pocket Medical Expenditures Before and After the Implementation of Medicare Prescription Drug Program http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/the-economic-burden-of-out-of-pocket-medical-expenditures-before-and-after-the-implementation-of-medicare-prescription-drug-program/ http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/the-economic-burden-of-out-of-pocket-medical-expenditures-before-and-after-the-implementation-of-medicare-prescription-drug-program/#comments Mon, 06 May 2013 18:22:38 +0000 Amy http://crr.bc.edu/?p=15178 by Ayse Akincigil, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Medicare’s cost sharing policies (e.g., deductibles, copayments) and uncovered health services result in a significant amount of out-of-pocket medical expenses.  The financial strain from such expenses results in economic insecurity among the elderly.  Our purpose is to describe the economic burden of out-of-pocket medical expenditures experienced by older Americans before and after the implementation of Medicare Prescription Drug Program (Part D).  To do so, we propose to analyze nationally representative data from the Medicare Current Beneficiaries Survey (MCBS).  We will investigate if the Part D implementation was associated with reduced inequalities in medical expenditure burden.  We propose to study data from years 2001 to 2010, which will make it possible to capture both the immediate and long-term impact of the policy change; and will provide ample statistical power to conduct subgroup analyses, in order to understand the trends among those who are most vulnerable to the economic burden.  Debates over the sustainability of Medicare have been a constant feature of American political life.

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]]> http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/the-economic-burden-of-out-of-pocket-medical-expenditures-before-and-after-the-implementation-of-medicare-prescription-drug-program/feed/ 0 Public Costs of Hard Work: Lifetime Job Characteristics and Retirement Behavior http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/public-costs-of-hard-work-lifetime-job-characteristics-and-retirement-behavior/ http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/public-costs-of-hard-work-lifetime-job-characteristics-and-retirement-behavior/#comments Mon, 06 May 2013 18:22:32 +0000 Amy http://crr.bc.edu/?p=15181 by Lauren Hersch Nicholas, University of Michigan

The majority of American adults work for pay for many years between early adulthood and Social Security benefit receipt.  Though links between health and retirement are well-documented, little is known about how the cumulative health effects of occupations influence workers’ ability to work later in life.  This project will link all lifetime jobs reported by Health and Retirement Study (HRS) respondents to a comprehensive set of job characteristics collected by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Information Network.  We will use factor analysis techniques to develop summary measures of job characteristics such as whether positions require strength or repetitive motion (physical demands); provide cognitive stimulation (cognitive complexity); or offer little control over task completion (physiological demands).  We will use these data to describe age at retirement and initial Social Security benefit claiming (through Disability Insurance or retirement benefits) and health (to assess ability to work) at common retirement ages.  We will compare rates of chronic conditions such as arthritis and Alzheimer’s Disease that are plausibly determined by cumulative job characteristics (for example repetitive physical motions or non-cognitively complex jobs) at age 62 and 65 for workers with different job characteristics.  The results of this study will provide important information about the health consequences of increasing the number of years that older workers, especially those with physically demanding jobs, spend working, as well as the physical capacity for work at older ages.

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]]> http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/public-costs-of-hard-work-lifetime-job-characteristics-and-retirement-behavior/feed/ 0 The Causes and Consequences of Financial Fraud Victimization Among Older Americans http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/the-causes-and-consequences-of-financial-fraud-victimization-among-older-americans/ http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/the-causes-and-consequences-of-financial-fraud-victimization-among-older-americans/#comments Mon, 06 May 2013 18:22:25 +0000 Amy http://crr.bc.edu/?p=15189 by Keith Jacks Gamble, DePaul University

Financial fraud is a major threat to the retirement security of senior citizens, and its prevalence is growing.  Despite this problem, few studies have examined the factors that make an older person susceptible to financial fraud.  The impact of being a victim of financial fraud on future decision making is also under-examined.  The proposed research will address these gaps in knowledge about the causes and consequences of financial fraud victimization among older Americans.

Perhaps the most significant barrier to research in this area is getting the data required for a systematic study.  Victims may never report the crime to the authorities, and known victims may not want to share their experience.  The PI has found a unique opportunity to study financial fraud through Rush University Medical Center’s Memory and Aging Project (MAP), an ongoing longitudinal study of aging.  Since its beginning in 1997, MAP has enrolled participants age 60 and older from throughout the Chicago metropolitan area in its study.  Participants undergo yearly interviews and clinical evaluations.  Since 2010, MAP has administered a survey of financial decision making, which includes questions addressing financial fraud victimization. Currently, MAP has 664 participants who have completed at least one decision-making survey; 62 participants report being recently victimized by financial fraud.  The MAP decision-making survey has generated a large dataset from victims and non-victims of fraud.  The PI will use the MAP dataset to test hypotheses about what makes a person susceptible to financial fraud and what impact fraud victimization has on one’s future financial decision making.  The dataset includes the required demographic variables to control for confounding factors, including age, sex, and educational attainment.

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]]> http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/the-causes-and-consequences-of-financial-fraud-victimization-among-older-americans/feed/ 0 Faculty Retirement and Mortality: The University of California Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Programs http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/faculty-retirement-and-mortality-the-university-of-california-voluntary-early-retirement-incentive-programs/ http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/faculty-retirement-and-mortality-the-university-of-california-voluntary-early-retirement-incentive-programs/#comments Mon, 06 May 2013 18:22:19 +0000 Amy http://crr.bc.edu/?p=15200 by Mark Borgschulte, University of California, Berkeley

This study examines take-up and long-run mortality effects of the Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Programs (VERIPs) conducted by the University of California (UC) in the early 1990s. VERIPs induced the retirement of over 20 percent of tenured and tenure-track faculty at UC, creating a large pool of retirees with significant variation in age and pension income.  Recent research on the mortality effects of early retirement find a variety of effects, ranging from mild positive long-run mortality benefits (Bingley and Pedersen, 2011) to immediate negative effects (Kuhn et al., 2010); some studies find no effect (Coe and Zamarro (2011) and Hernaes et al. (2012)).  This setting will allow me to isolate variation in retirement age among a group of workers likely to benefit from continued employment: physical requirements are minimal, cognitive and social stimulation readily available, and employment protections nearly inviolate. As such, this study will directly test for the possibility of beneficial effects of continued employment on subsequent mortality.  I will address issues specific to the population of tenured university faculty, and the end of mandatory retirement.

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]]> http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/faculty-retirement-and-mortality-the-university-of-california-voluntary-early-retirement-incentive-programs/feed/ 0 Financing Long-Term Care: The Potential Role of the Long-Term Care Partnership Program http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/financing-long-term-care-the-potential-role-of-the-long-term-care-partnership-program/ http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/financing-long-term-care-the-potential-role-of-the-long-term-care-partnership-program/#comments Mon, 06 May 2013 18:22:11 +0000 Amy http://crr.bc.edu/?p=15203 by Portia Cornell, Harvard University

With the failure to implement the CLASS Act, Congress has created a commission whose task is to create a plan to address long-term-care challenges under a sustainable financing mechanism. Partnership programs are one of the policy options under serious consideration, suggesting it is important to assess remaining policy options for long-term care that protect older Americans from catastrophic risk with acceptable burden on public costs.  The proposed project will estimate the future costs and offsets of the Partnership Program.  I will approach this question in three steps: (1) estimate the additional cost to Medicaid of the asset disregard applied to current holders of Partnership-qualified plans, assuming no changes in the number and type of policy holders; (2) determine what take-up rate among individuals similar to current holders of long-term-care insurance would achieve cost-neutrality of a Partnership program; and (3) calculate how much a rational, risk-averse consumer’s willingness-to-pay for private long-term care increases with the availability of an asset disregard.  Thus, in the first two steps, I will establish a lower bound on how much the government would have to induce insurance purchase a Partnership programs to make fiscal sense, and in the third step establish a theoretical framework to evaluate whether this is a realistic goal.  To my knowledge, this research will represent the first comprehensive cost estimates of Partnership programs.

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]]> http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/financing-long-term-care-the-potential-role-of-the-long-term-care-partnership-program/feed/ 0 The Effects of Retirement on Health http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/the-effects-of-retirement-on-health/ http://crr.bc.edu/about-us/grants/the-effects-of-retirement-on-health/#comments Mon, 06 May 2013 18:22:05 +0000 Amy http://crr.bc.edu/?p=15207 by Itzik (Yizhak) Fadlon, Harvard University

The goal of this project is to analyze the effects of retirement on the health and wellbeing of older workers, by analyzing the effects of working near retirement age.  The analysis will be divided into two main groups of health outcomes – physical and mental – since their respective hypotheses diverge.  We will focus on the potential heterogeneity of these effects across several dimensions – occupation, education, initial health and wealth – as well as on the timing of these effects – whether changes in health start upon retirement or in anticipation of it.  In addition, we will analyze the different effects on health of transitioning to retirement from full-time work and of a more gradual transition, from full-time to part-time to retirement.

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