TY - JOUR AU - Lusardi, Annamaria AU - Mitchell, Olivia S AU - Oggero, Noemi TI - Debt and Financial Vulnerability on the Verge of Retirement JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 23664 PY - 2017 Y2 - August 2017 DO - 10.3386/w23664 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w23664 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w23664.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Annamaria Lusardi The George Washington University School of Business 2201 G Street, NW Duques Hall, Suite 450E Washington, DC 20052 Tel: 202-994-8410 E-Mail: alusardi@gwu.edu Olivia S. Mitchell University of Pennsylvania The Wharton School 3620 Locust Walk, St 3000 SH-DH Philadelphia, PA 19104-6302 Tel: 215-898-0424 Fax: 215/898-0310 E-Mail: mitchelo@wharton.upenn.edu Noemi Oggero University of Turin Collegio Carlo Alberto Via Real Collegio 30 10024 Moncalieri (Torino) Italy E-Mail: noemi.oggero@carloalberto.org M2 - featured in NBER digest on 2018-10-16 AB - We analyze older individuals’ debt and financial vulnerability using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the National Financial Capability Study (NFCS). Specifically, in the HRS we examine three different cohorts (individuals age 56–61) in 1992, 2004, and 2010 to evaluate cross-cohort changes in debt over time. We also use two waves of the NFCS (2012 and 2015) to gain additional insights into debt management and older individuals’ capacity to shield themselves against shocks. We show that recent cohorts have taken on more debt and face more financial insecurity, mostly due to having purchased more expensive homes with smaller down payments. ER -