Education

Navajo man sitting on the bed of his pick-up truck in Monument Valley

Abstract This paper examines the impact of work and retirement on the size, density, and composition of older Americans’ social networks. It uses novel panel data from the first two waves of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project. Critical components of the analysis include the development of an instrumental variable fixed-effect estimation strategy based…

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Abstract The option to claim Social Security before the full retirement age (FRA) has been around for over 50 years.  But claiming benefits early has an inherent trade-off: more years of income are received in exchange for an actuarially reduced monthly benefit.  The actuarial reduction is designed to be “fair” for the average worker in…