@techreport{NBERw3843,
 title = "Changing Social Security Survivorship Benefits and the Poverty of Widows",
 author = "Michael D. Hurd and David A. Wise",
 institution = "National Bureau of Economic Research",
 type = "Working Paper",
 series = "Working Paper Series",
 number = "3843",
 year = "1991",
 month = "September",
 URL = "http://www.nber.org/papers/w3843",
 abstract = {The paper considers the effect on widows' poverty of changes in Social Security survivorship benefits, by a reduction in couples' benefits so that total Social Security cost is unchanged. A twenty percent increase in survivorship benefits, for example, would reduce the 1989 poverty rate of widows aged 65 to 69 by about twenty-four percent, from 0.25 to 0.19. The poverty rate of couples would be increased by about thirty-three percent, from about 0.06 to about 0.08.},
}