Retirement Security Research Articles

Older workers’ employment and Social Security spillovers through the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic triggered a large and immediate drop in employment among U.S. workers, along with major expansions of unemployment insurance (UI) and work from home. We use Current Population Survey and Social Security application data to study employment among older adults and their participation in disability and retirement insurance programs through the second year of the pandemic. We find ongoing improvements in employment outcomes among older workers in the labor force, along with sustained higher levels in the share no longer in the labor force during this period. Applications for Social Security disability benefits remain depressed, particularly for Supplemental Security Income. In models accounting for the expiration of expanded UI, we find some evidence that the loss of these additional financial supports resulted in an increase in disability claiming. Social Security retirement benefit claiming is approximately 3% higher during the second year of the pandemic.

Is Nontraditional Work at Older Ages Associated with Better Retirement Security?

Holding nontraditional jobs—which provide neither health insurance nor retirement benefits—might be helpful to those looking to extend their careers for financial reasons. This study uses the <i>Health and Retirement Study</i> to determine the extent to which workers in traditional jobs with less retirement security when they reach the cusp of retirement are more likely to move to nontraditional jobs in their mid- to late-60s than those who are more secure. It then examines whether nontraditional jobs improve retirement security by ages 67–68. The results indicate that workers in traditional jobs who reach age 62 with less projected retirement income, relative to their pre-retirement standard of living, are no more likely to engage in nontraditional work after age 62 than those who are better prepared. Among those workers who are at risk of not maintaining their pre-retirement income level in retirement, however, nontraditional work appears to move them closer to retirement security.

Aging Has Economic Costs to North Carolina Workers, Taxpayers, and Small Business Owners

Retirement security is deeply connected with health security for older adults, and public policy needs to incorporate these interrelationships more fully.

The Learning Effectiveness of the Innovative Model of Integrating Financial Education into a College Career Planning Course

This study examines the effectiveness of an innovative model of integrating financial education into a career planning course at the college level. A total of 104 freshman students (48 in the day division and 56 in the evening division) were sampled. Based on the analysis of the &amp;ldquo;College Students Financial Planning Survey Questionnaire&amp;rdquo; revealed that: 90% of the daytime students and 97% of the evening students agreed on the importance of financial education and financial planning in career planning; daytime and evening students share common perspectives on the importance of financial planning in career planning: to realize their dreams, they need to have an adequate financial foundation to support their daily living expenses, and then to plan their financial management well for future retirement security. There are several items of college students&amp;rsquo; financial planning status varies between the different education programs. According to the analysis of various score results from the &amp;ldquo;Career Planning Course Learning Satisfaction Questionnaire&amp;rdquo;, there was no significant difference across academic systems in the analysis of satisfaction with the integration of financial education into a career planning course; the three most important overall satisfaction analyses all indicate a high level of satisfaction, including: the overall teaching content, the overall content design of financial education, and the benefit of integrating financial education into the career planning courses for personal career planning. Finally, this study offers some specific suggestions for integrating college financial education into a career planning course.

Three little words? The impact of social security terminology on knowledge and claiming intentions

AbstractWe study the impact of changing the existing terminology to describe the rules governing Social Security retirement benefits. We provided respondents from a nationally representative online panel with information pertinent to the decision of when to claim Social Security retirement benefits. The content of the information treatments was identical for all respondents, but some were randomly given an alternative set of terms to refer to the key claiming ages (the experimental treatment group), while others were given the current terms (the control group). Despite the minimal nature of the change, there were significant differences in outcomes. Those in the treatment group spent less time reading the information, but their understanding of the Social Security program improved more than the control group. In addition, the treatment delayed retirement claiming intentions by an average of about two and a half months and increased the recommended claiming age to vignette characters by a similar magnitude. The effects were particularly strong for those with low levels of financial literacy. The relative gains in knowledge persisted several months after the treatment.

The gender division of labor and its effect on retirement security

The gender division of labor and its effect on retirement security

Changes in Racial Gaps in Retirement Security over Time

Changes in Racial Gaps in Retirement Security over Time

How Racial Differences in Housing Returns Shape Retirement Security

How Racial Differences in Housing Returns Shape Retirement Security

Improving Retirement Security with a Dynamic Asset Allocation Strategy using Retirement Bonds: The Case of Brazil

Improving Retirement Security with a Dynamic Asset Allocation Strategy using Retirement Bonds: The Case of Brazil

The Shift that Redefined Retirement Security

The Shift that Redefined Retirement Security

Designing Development Policies for the Social Security Retirement System with a Future Study Approach

Designing Development Policies for the Social Security Retirement System with a Future Study Approach

Predictors of Retirement Security among the Malaysian Civil Servants

Predictors of Retirement Security among the Malaysian Civil Servants

CARING FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES, WORKING, AND SAVING FOR RETIREMENT OVER THE LIFE COURSE

Abstract In the US, financial security in retirement depends on having savings and other assets accumulated during the pre-retirement years. Pension savings accrue over the working life, in defined-benefit or defined-contribution retirement plans. Mothers with children with disabilities experience different life-course work trajectories than mothers without children with disabilities, though data used in previous studies primarily examine a single point in time or a short span of years. This paper draws longitudinal data from the nationally-representative 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth for the years 1987 through 2018, using a life-course perspective and sequence analysis to identify long-term work patterns among women with children who do and do not have disabilities with an explicit focus on variations in occupational class and employment status. We found a distinctive pattern of long-term work history with five types: Full-time semi-professional to not working, Constantly not working, Semi-professional full time, Professional full time, and Not working to full time work. Results from regression analyses revealed variation in mothers’ household financial preparation for retirement at late mid-adulthood. Compared with mothers who held professional full-time jobs throughout their adulthood, mothers who started full time jobs in middle age and have children with disabilities were less likely to have pension plans. Mothers of children with disabilities who left the labor force in early middle age tended to have lower retirement savings. Policy interventions to address these mothers’ caregiving ability to stay engaged in the workforce and prepare for their retirement need to be explored.

Valuing Losses of Pension Benefits

Valuing Losses of Pension Benefits

Asset building policies to lift the resource curse: child development accounts in oil-and-gas-rich countries

Of the approximately 70 low-to-middle-income (LMI) oil-and-gas-rich countries, almost all are victims of the resource curse or paradox of plenty, which conceptualizes the development patterns with petroleum and mineral resources. Lifting the resource curse can positively change the trajectory of global development. After the failure of the implementation of natural reserve funds in most oil-and-gas-rich LMI countries, scholars suggested the direct distribution of natural resource revenues to the population to escape the resource curse. The paper suggests an evidence-based asset-building policy, child development accounts (CDA), linked to oil and gas revenues being directly distributed to the population. CDAs are saving accounts specifically targeting children, started in the late 1980s, to help families to fulfill life goals for their children such as postsecondary education, homeownership, business development, and retirement security. The elements of the recommended policy are based on the findings of three qualitative studies carried out in Azerbaijan in 2017 and 2018, and in six post-Soviet countries in 2019 and 2020. Primary data were collected through in-depth interviews with key informants (N = 94), such as ministers, deputy ministers, representatives of the oil funds, academicians, financial institutions, and local and international nonprofit organizations. Secondary data came from archival records, such as governmental reports, publications from national and international agencies, published research, and statistics from relevant government agencies. Purposive sampling techniques were used. The inclusion criteria were being a senior policy-maker, having a deep understanding of the policy-making process, and having deep knowledge of social protection and child well-being systems in Azerbaijan. The data were analyzed by NVivo. The paper used 10 CDA design elements recommended by Michael Sherraden and his colleagues as well as national CDA policy models from across the globe. Azerbaijan, an oil-and-gas-rich LMI country was chosen as a case study for the recommended policy design

Pension Plan Types and Social Security Knowledge: New Survey Evidence

ABSTRACT Knowledge of the Social Security Old-Age and Survivors Insurance program affects people’s work, consumption, and savings decisions before retirement and in turn impacts financial well-being in retirement. This study examines whether the type of employer-sponsored pension is associated with varying levels of Social Security knowledge using data from the Understanding America Study. Results indicate that people with various pension types are consistently more knowledgeable about disability benefits, age adjustment, claiming upon retirement, and spousal benefits, relative to pensionless individuals. Interventions to enhance Social Security knowledge may benefit from targeting the most financially vulnerable individuals, particularly women without a pension, for enhanced retirement security.

Analysis of Factors Affecting Employee Participation in Retirement Security Plan

Analysis of Factors Affecting Employee Participation in Retirement Security Plan

The impact of Covid-19 on older workers' employment and Social Security spillovers.

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a major threat to health and economic well-being in the USA, especially for older and disabled workers, and may spill over onto Social Security. We use individual-level from the Current Population Survey, state-level monthly Social Security administrative data on disability benefit applications, and national-level monthly data on Social Security retirement benefit applications to assess the impact of the pandemic on older adults’ employment and benefit claiming. State-level monthly Google Trends data are used as a leading indicator of future claiming in the population. We find that employment for older workers dropped substantially more than would have been predicted prior to the pandemic: employment for 50–61-year-olds was 5.7 pp (8.3 percent) lower, while employment for 62–70-year-olds was 3.9 pp (10.7 percent) lower. We find declines in labor force exit due to disability (4–5 percent), applications for disability insurance (15 percent), the average age of disability program applicants, and Google searches for disability (7 percent). We contrast with prior periods of economic downturn and explore potential mechanisms, finding evidence for both supply- and demand-side explanations.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00148-022-00915-z.

How would 401(k) ‘Rothification’ alter saving, retirement security, and inequality?

AbstractMany nations incentivize retirement saving by letting workers defer taxes on pension contributions, imposing them when retirees withdraw their funds. Using a dynamic life-cycle model, we show how ‘Rothification’ – that is, taxing 401(k) contributions rather than payouts – alters saving, investment, consumption, and Social Security claiming patterns. We find that taxing pension contributions instead of withdrawals leads to delayed retirement, somewhat lower lifetime tax payments, and relatively small reductions in consumption. Indeed, the two tax regimes generate quite similar relative inequality metrics: the relative consumption inequality ratio under taxed-exempt-exempt (TEE) is only 4% higher than that in the exempt-exempt-taxed (EET) case. Moreover, results indicate that the Gini measures are also strikingly similar under the EET and the TEE regimes for lifetime consumption, cash on hand, and 401(k) assets, differing by only 1–4%. While tax payments are higher early in life under the TEE regime, they are slightly lower in the long run. Moreover, higher EET tax payments are also accompanied by higher volatility. We therefore find few reasons for policymakers to favor either tax approach on egalitarian or revenue-enhancing grounds.

Slouching Towards a Consumption Tax and the End of Retirement Income Security

I presented a version of this paper at a 2003 symposium on public policy for retirement security at the Ohio State Moritz College of Law.In 2003, the Bush Administration proposed two ideas that I (and others) feared would undermine the retirement income security of millions of Americans. The first idea was to create two new tax-favored personal savings vehicles: the retirement savings account and the lifetime savings account. These tax-benefited accounts, which would have existed outside the employer-based retirement system and replace individual retirement accounts, would each have permitted annual contributions of $7,500 each, or $15,000 in the aggregate. (An individual could also have set up lifetime savings accounts for family members without earned income, into which he could contribute $7,500 annually.) The contributions were to be made on an after-tax basis, but the earnings would be exempt from income tax, a schemata based on the Roth IRA. The RSA would impose penalties on pre-retirement withdrawals; the LSA would not. These ideas did not find favor in the Congress and were generally opposed by the business community, organized labor, and liberal think tanks, for reasons I will summarize shortly. Nevertheless, the White House and members of Congress have introduced similar proposals in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008, and the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform adopted retirement and lifetime savings accounts as part of its blueprint for reform, which was released in late 2005. Thus, the idea of these new accounts retains political and intellectual currency, like the proverbial bad nickel, and they, or variations on them, are almost certainly to survive the end of the Bush presidency.