TY  - JOUR
AU  - Neumark,David
AU  - Powers,Elizabeth
TI  - The Effect of Means-Tested Income Support for the Elderly on Pre-Retirement Saving: Evidence from the SSI Program in the U.S.
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 6303
PY  - 1997
Y2  - December 1997
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6303
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6303.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
David Neumark
Department of Economics
University of California at Irvine
3151 Social Science Plaza
Irvine, CA  92697
Tel: 949-824-8496
Fax: 949/824-2182
E-Mail: dneumark@uci.edu

Elizabeth T.. Powers
E-Mail: epowers@uiuc.edu
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 1998-06-01
AB  - We attempt to draw inferences about potential behavioral responses to means-tested" income support for the elderly by examining the effects on saving of the Supplemental Security" Income (SSI) program for the aged in the U.S.  Part of the SSI program provides payments to the" poor elderly, thus operating as a means-tested public retirement program.  The federal" government sets eligibility criteria and benefit levels for the federal component of the program but many states supplement federal SSI benefits substantially.  We exploit the state-level" variation in SSI benefits to estimate the effects of SSI on saving. We use data from selected" waves of the 1984 Survey of Income Program Participation (SIPP).  We find evidence that high" SSI benefits reduce saving among households with heads who are approaching the SSI eligibility" age and who are likely participants in the program.
ER  -