http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu RSS Feed for The University of Michigan Retirement Research Center new publications Mon, 12 Nov 2012 07:00:02 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/rss/index.xml en-us http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=860&type=101 by John Karl Scholz and Ananth Seshadri: We develop a model of health investments and consumption over the life cycle where health affects longevity, provides flow utility, and retirement is endogenous. We develop a rich, numerical life-cycle model to study the complex interrelationship between health a... Wed, 07 Nov 2012 04:42:06 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=860&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=856&type=101 by Alan L. Gustman, Thomas L. Steinmeier and Nahid Tabatabai: A review of the literature suggests that when pension values are measured by the wealth equivalent of promised DB pension benefits and DC balances for those approaching retirement, pensions account for more support in retirement than is suggested when their contribution is measured by incomes receiv... Wed, 07 Nov 2012 03:27:26 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=856&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=858&type=101 by David Neumark and Joanne Song: Policy changes intended to delay retirements of older workers and extend their work lives may run up against demand-side barriers from age discrimination, and supply-side barriers owing to rising physical challenges of work as people age.  We study three questions.  How do age discrimin... Wed, 07 Nov 2012 03:20:38 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=858&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=828&type=101 by Alan L. Gustman and Thomas L. Steinmeier: This paper specifies three behavioral variants of a structural model of retirement and saving to bring predicted Social Security claiming rates closer to the rates observed in the data. The model, estimated with Health and Retirement Study data, is used to examine three potential policies: increasin... Thu, 01 Nov 2012 09:26:49 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=828&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=837&type=101 by Walton O. Schalick III: Governmental agencies serve individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) and Psychiatric Disabilities (PD) and must consequently communicate with these individuals at multiple points, from interviews with claims representatives to written notices sent to applicants and beneficiaries about highly ... Mon, 01 Oct 2012 01:38:09 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=837&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=751&type=101 by Nicole Maestas, Kathleen Mullen and Alexander Strand: We present the first causal estimates of the effect of Social Security Disability Insurance benefit receipt on labor supply using all program applicants. We use new administrative data to match applications to disability examiners, and exploit variation in examiners allowance rates as an instrum... Mon, 10 Sep 2012 09:07:01 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=751&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=826&type=101 by Nicole Maestas, Kathleen Mullen and Gema Zamarro: The number of American adults receiving benefits from the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program has increased dramatically over the past several decades. A proposed solution to rising program costs is to change program rules to encourage fully or partially recovered SSDI beneficiaries ... Wed, 05 Sep 2012 11:27:22 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=826&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=820&type=101 by Susan Chen: Disability is a permanent unexpected shock to labor supply which according to the theory of the added worker effect should induce a large spousal labor supply response. The Disability Insurance (DI) program is designed to mitigate the income lost due to disability. To the extent that it does this, i... Fri, 20 Jul 2012 03:40:58 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=820&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=569&type=101 by Michael Hurd and Susann Rohwedder: Most assessments of the adequacy of retirement resources are expressed as a comparison of preretirement income to immediate post-retirement income. Yet, among couples a substantial fraction of retirement years is eventually spent by the surviving spouse l... Fri, 20 Jul 2012 12:42:56 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=569&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=717&type=101 by Shinichi Nishiyama: The current U.S. Social Security program redistributes resources from high wage workers to low wage workers and from two-earner couples to one-earner couples. The present paper extends a standard general-equilibrium overlapping-generations model with uninsurable wage shocks to analyze the effect of ... Fri, 18 May 2012 03:09:55 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=717&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=813&type=101 by Angela Lee Duckworth and David Weir: In a previous study, we found the family of personality traits known as conscientiousness to be associated in cross-sectional analyses with both lifetime earnings and wealth. In this study, we used data from an Internet survey of HRS respondents in the second quarter of 2009 to test whether consc... Wed, 15 Feb 2012 02:38:20 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=813&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=806&type=101 by Purvi Sevak and Lucie Schmidt: Economic theory suggests that individual decisions about consumption, saving, and labor supply should be directly linked to subjective expectations about future events. This project uses panel data from the Health and Retirement Study from 1994-2008 merged to data on a number of local and high frequ... Mon, 19 Dec 2011 06:36:06 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=806&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=808&type=101 by Lauren Nicholas: This paper examines the effect of elective surgery receipt on Social Security Disability Insurance application and receipt amongst older adults with common chronic conditions. I use panel data from the Health and Retirement Study to follow older adults with work-limiting disabilities who develop new... Fri, 16 Dec 2011 03:38:26 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=808&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=802&type=101 by Michael Hurd and Susann Rohwedder: We studied how households adjust their spending in response to the financial crisis. Based on five waves of data from the Consumption and Activities Mail Survey, we quantified the reduction in total consumption and in specific categories of consumption in the older population at large and by stock o... Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:28:45 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=802&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=798&type=101 by Richard V. Burkhauser, Lauren Nicholas and Maximilian D. Schmeiser: The rate of application for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits, as well as the number of beneficiaries has been increasing for the past several decades, threatening the solvency of the SSDI program. One possible remedy is to promote continued employment amongst those experiencing t... Mon, 14 Nov 2011 03:02:59 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=798&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=796&type=101 by Hugo A. Benítez-Silva, Eva Carceles-Poveda and Selcuk Eren: Immigration is having an increasingly important effect on the social insurance system in the United States. On the one hand, eligible legal immigrants have the right to eventually receive pension benefits, but also rely on other aspects of the social insurance system such as health care, disability,... Mon, 14 Nov 2011 02:40:15 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=796&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=794&type=101 by David Neumark and Joanne Song: Supply-side Social Security reforms to increase employment and delay benefit claiming among older individuals may be frustrated by age discrimination. We test for policy complementarities between supply-side Social Security reforms and demand-side efforts to deter age discrimination, specifically st... Mon, 14 Nov 2011 02:27:09 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=794&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=763&type=101 by Jing Jing Chai, Raimond H. Maurer, Olivia S. Mitchell and Ralph Rogalla: The direct financial impact of the financial crisis has been to deal a heavy blow to investment-based pensions; many workers lost a substantial portion of their retirement saving. The financial sector implosion in turn produced an economic crisis for the rest of the economy via high unemployment and... Mon, 14 Nov 2011 01:28:01 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=763&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=791&type=101 by Jere Behrman, Maria Cecilia Calderon, Olivia S. Mitchell, Javiera Vasquez and David Bravo: Chiles innovative privatized pension system has been lauded as possible model for Social Security system overhauls in other countries, yet it has also been critiqued for not including a strong safety net for the uncovered sector. In response, the Bachelet government in 2008 implemented reforms t... Mon, 14 Nov 2011 01:26:16 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=791&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=775&type=101 by Alan L. Gustman, Thomas L. Steinmeier and Nahid Tabatabai: Studies using data from the early 1990s suggested that while the progressive Social Security benefit formula succeeded in redistributing benefits from individuals with high earnings to individuals with low earnings, it was much less successful in redistributing b... Mon, 14 Nov 2011 01:22:27 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=775&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=723&type=101 by Michael Hurd and Susann Rohwedder: We study the effects of the 2007-2009 recession on the population age 55 and older. Households in and near retirement have suffered sizeable losses in assets as a result of the economic crisis. There are a number of ways in which households might respond: reduce spending and with that increase savin... Thu, 03 Mar 2011 05:35:23 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=723&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=740&type=101 by Angela Lee Duckworth and David Weir: Studies of adolescents and young adults have shown that schooling impacts economic outcomes beyond its impact on cognitive ability. Research has also shown that the personality trait of conscientiousness predicts health outcomes, academic outcomes, and divorce. Using the Big Five taxonomy of persona... Mon, 28 Feb 2011 11:35:38 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=740&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=753&type=101 by Charles Brown: Few private defined benefit pension plans commit to indexing benefits after a worker begins receiving them. Previous (now dated) research found that most plans did, nonetheless, make "voluntary" adjustments, which compensated for roughly 40 percent of the price increases experienced since retiremen... Fri, 28 Jan 2011 11:22:51 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=753&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=755&type=101 by Luc Behaghel and David Blau: We use a US Social Security reform as a quasi-experiment to provide evidence on framing effects in retirement behavior. The reform increased the full retirement age (FRA) from 65 to 66 in two month increments per year of birth for cohorts born from 1938 to 1943. We find strong evidence that the spik... Fri, 17 Dec 2010 02:50:22 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=755&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=747&type=101 by John Bound and Timothy A. Waidmann: Over the last 25 years the Social Security Disability Insurance Program (DI) has grown dramatically. During the same period of time employment rates for men with work limitations showed substantial declines in both absolute and relative terms. While the timing of these trends suggests that the expan... Thu, 18 Nov 2010 01:15:45 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=747&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=746&type=101 by John P. Laitner and Amanda Sonnega: Many economic analyses of public policy issues are based upon the life-cycle model of household behavior. The usual formulation omits private intergenerational transfers. This paper considers the possibility of a more sophisticated formulation that includes the latter. We examine 1992-2008 HRS data ... Thu, 18 Nov 2010 08:16:35 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=746&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=745&type=101 by Brooke Helppie McFall, Kandice Kapinos and Robert J. Willis: This study explores the relationship between general human capital investment, financial knowledge, occupational spillovers, and the accumulation of wealth in a primarily descriptive manner. Drawing upon human capital theory and following previous related work by Delavande, Rohwedder and Willis (200... Wed, 17 Nov 2010 11:58:54 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=745&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=743&type=101 by Mariacristina De Nardi, Eric French and John Bailey Jones: We study a model in which retired single people optimally choose consumption, medical spending and saving while facing uncertainty about their health, lifespan and medical needs. This uncertainty is partially offset by insurance provided by the government and private institutions. We first show how ... Tue, 16 Nov 2010 10:46:18 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=743&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=739&type=101 by Suzanne M. Bianchi, Kathleen McGarry and Judith A. Seltzer: Perhaps the largest problem confronting our aging population is the rising cost of health care, particularly the costs borne by Medicare and Medicaid. A chief component of this expense is long-term care. Much of this care for an unmarried (mostly widowed) mother is currently provided by adult childr... Mon, 15 Nov 2010 02:31:36 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=739&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=725&type=101 by Michael Hurd and Susann Rohwedder: After retirement, the primary sources of uncertainty with respect to an individuals economic status are longevity, investment outcomes and out-of-pocket spending on health care. In previous work, we estimated economic preparation for retirement, taking into account the risk of living to an advanced... Thu, 11 Nov 2010 09:23:24 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=725&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=693&type=101 by Jody Schimmel, David Stapleton and Jae Song: Fewer Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) beneficiaries have their earnings suspended or terminated because of work than those who are actually working, partly because beneficiaries "park" earnings at a level below substantial gainful activity (SGA) to retain benefits. We assess the extent of ... Tue, 26 Oct 2010 05:26:30 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=693&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=727&type=101 by Justine Hastings and Olivia S. Mitchell: Two competing explanations for why consumers have trouble with financial decisions are gaining momentum. One is that people are financially illiterate since they lack understanding of simple economic concepts and cannot carry out computations such as computing compound interest, which could cause th... Tue, 26 Oct 2010 10:01:09 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=727&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=721&type=101 by Matthew D. Shapiro: This paper uses the Cognitive Economics Study (CogEcon) to assess the effect of the financial crisis on the well-being of older Americans. Financial wealth fell by about 15 percent for the median household. These financial losses were concentrated among households with high levels of wealth and high... Thu, 21 Oct 2010 01:31:14 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=721&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=719&type=101 by Hanming Fang, Lauren Nicholas and Daniel Silverman: Prior research indicates that retirees with less cognitive ability are at greater financial risk because they have lower incomes yet higher medical expenditures. Linking HRS data to administrative records, we evaluate two hypotheses about why this group spends more on health: (1) they are in worse h... Fri, 15 Oct 2010 08:54:30 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=719&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=715&type=101 by Alan L. Gustman, Thomas L. Steinmeier and Nahid Tabatabai: This paper investigates how increases in the level of maximum earnings subject to the Social Security payroll tax have affected Social Security benefits and taxes. The analysis uses data from the Health and Retirement Study to ask how different the present value of own benefits and taxes would be... Tue, 12 Oct 2010 05:02:20 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=715&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=712&type=101 by Annamaria Lusardi: This paper analyzes new data from the 2009 National Financial Capability Study. This survey provides information to assess how American households make financial decisions, how they are faring under current economic conditions, and in what ways financial knowledge contributes to financial capability... Tue, 12 Oct 2010 07:59:03 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=712&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=711&type=101 by Frank Stafford and Elena Gouskova: The U.S. economy experienced a dramatic rise in the price of owner occupied housing during 1999-2007, and then a precipitous decline from 2007 through 2009. In this paper we utilize data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) during 1999-2009 to study first the factors and borrowing decision... Tue, 12 Oct 2010 07:40:34 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=711&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=709&type=101 by John Karl Scholz and Ananth Seshadri: This paper presents a preliminary model of health investments over the life cycle. Health affects both longevity and provides flow utility. We analyze the interplay between consumption choices and investments in health by solving each households dynamic optimization problem to obtain predictions on... Wed, 29 Sep 2010 02:18:34 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=709&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=705&type=101 by Timothy Jun Lu and Olivia S. Mitchell: This paper explores the determinants of peoples decisions to take 401(k) loans. We argue that 401(k) plans do not simply represent retirement saving, but they also provide a means of saving for precautionary purposes. We model factors that rationally would induce people to borrow from their pension... Fri, 24 Sep 2010 08:31:04 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=705&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=703&type=101 by Alan L. Gustman, Thomas L. Steinmeier and Nahid Tabatabai: This paper uses data from the Health and Retirement Study to explore the mechanism that underlies the robust relation found in the literature between cognitive ability, and in particular numeracy, and wealth, income constant. We have a number of findings. First, the more valuable the pension, the... Thu, 23 Sep 2010 01:44:03 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=703&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=630&type=101 by Alejandra Cox Edwards and Estelle James: Recent research has argued that incentives stemming from social security systems influence the workers decision to retire. The experience of Chile, which radically changed its system in 1981, offers an opportunity to test this hypothesis. The new system tightened access to early pensions, replaced ... Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:26:00 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=630&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=607&type=101 by Petra Todd and Viviana Vélez-Grajales: Chile has been at the forefront of pension reform, having switched in 1980 from a pay-as-you-go system to a fully funded privatized accounts system. The Chilean system served as a model for reform in many other Latin American countries and has also been considered by U.S. policy makers as a possible... Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:00:00 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=607&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=605&type=101 by Wojciech Kopczuk and Jae Song: We rely on the Master Beneficiary File to document a number of facts regarding claiming of Social Security benefits and quality of date of birth data in administrative files. We then assess the impact of changes in retirement incentives that have taken place since 2000 on claiming. We find evidence ... Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:00:00 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=605&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=606&type=101 by Nicole Maestas and Na Yin: The Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) program imposes strong work restrictions on beneficiaries; however, the causal effect of the work disincentives on labor supply has been difficult to estimate. We take a new look at this question by exploiting the fact that DI benefits are payable only ... Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:00:00 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=606&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=599&type=101 by Shinichi Nishiyama and Kent Smetters: The United States Social Security system is fairly unique in that it explicitly allows for a progressive formulation of retirement benefits by assigning a larger replacement rate to workers with small pre-retirement wages. In contrast, the public pension systems in other countries often replace a... Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:00:00 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=599&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=600&type=101 by Helen Levy and Kristin S. Seefeldt: How do low-income households think about retirement Do they think about retirement If so, when do they think they will retire, and what is it they plan to live on In this paper, we present evidence on these questions based on 51 qualitative interviews with low-income families in the Detroit area.... Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:00:00 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=600&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=601&type=101 by Emma Aguila, Michael Hurd and Susann Rohwedder: In 1997 Mexico introduced Personal Retirement Accounts (PRAs) which, after a transition phase, will completely replace the pay-as-you-go (PAYG) system. We give a detailed overview of the relevant institutional framework, the market of PRA providers and how it has evolved since the 1997 reform. We us... Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:00:00 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=601&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=602&type=101 by Helen Levy and Kristin S. Seefeldt: How do low-income households think about saving What motivations do they identify for saving, and what obstacles to meeting their goals We use data from qualitative interviews with 51 households in Detroit to shed light on these questions. We find that they wish they could save - primarily for pro... Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:00:00 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=602&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=603&type=101 by Ann Huff Stevens: Changes in labor markets over the past 30 years suggest upcoming changes in the distribution of wealth at retirement. Baby boom cohorts have spent the majority of their prime earnings years in a labor market with increased earnings inequality. This paper investigates how changes in lifetime earni... Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:00:00 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=603&type=101 http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=604&type=101 by Xiaoyan Li and Nicole Maestas: As the Social Security full retirement age rises, the relative generosity of Social Security retirement benefits compared to disability benefits is declining, raising the incentive for insured people to apply for disability benefits. After controlling for other differences in observable character... Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:00:00 EST http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/index_abstract.cfm?ptid=1&pid=604&type=101