TY  - JOUR
AU  - Hurd,Michael D.
AU  - Smith,James P.
AU  - Zissimopoulos,Julie M.
TI  - The Effects of Subjective Survival on Retirement and Social Security Claiming
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 9140
PY  - 2002
Y2  - September 2002
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9140
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9140.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Michael D. Hurd
RAND Corporation
1776 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90407
Tel: 310/451-6945
Fax: 310/451-6923
E-Mail: mhurd@rand.org

James P. Smith
RAND Corporation
1776 Main Street
P.O. Box 2138
Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138
Tel: 310-451-6925
E-Mail: smith@rand.org
AB  - According to the life-cycle model, mortality risk will influence both retirement and the desire to annuitize wealth.  We estimate the effect of subjective survival probabilities on retirement and on the claiming of Social Security benefits because delayed claiming is equivalent to the purchase of additional Social Security annuities.  We find that those with very low subjective probabilities of survival retire earlier and claim earlier than those with higher subjective probabilities, but the effects are not large.  The great majority of workers claim as soon as they are eligible.
ER  -