African American businesswoman raising hand, asking question in business conference

Do Longevity Expectations Influence Retirement Plans?

Issue Brief by Mashfiqur R. Khan, Matthew S. Rutledge, and April Yanyuan Wu

March 18, 2014

The brief’s key findings are: Workers who think they have excellent chances of living to ages 75 and 85 plan to work longer than those who think their chances are poor. These perceptions of life expectancy also influence workers’ actual retirement behavior, though to a lesser degree. These results are consistent with the notion that…

Stethoscope with medicare form with parts list.

How Will More Obesity and Less Smoking Affect Life Expectancy?

Issue Brief by Samuel H. Preston, Andrew Stokes, Neil K. Mehta, and Bochen Cao

January 21, 2014

The brief’s key findings are: Obesity is on the rise and smoking is on the decline, so a key issue is the net effect of these two trends on future life expectancy. The analysis examines how each behavior currently affects mortality and applies the results to an estimate of the future prevalence of each behavior…