
July 3, 2025 - Article
Proposed increases in the eligibility age for retirement benefits raise questions about the health status of older adults and their ability to continue working beyond current retirement ages. In Trends in Work Capacity in the US Population: Are Recent Cohorts in Worse Health? (NBER Working Paper...
May 2025 - Working Paper33733 The growth of longevity in the U.S. and other countries has increased interest in raising the age of eligibility for public retirement benefits. The consequences of this policy depend on the health of the older adult population overall and by socioeconomic group. In this paper, we estimate how...
February 2025 - Working Paper33496 Budget set kinks are much studied in economics, including in the context of bunching estimators that assume individuals react to the true marginal tax rate. We document that individuals disproportionately left-bunch below kinks in the context of the Social Security Earnings Test where incentives...

December 31, 2024 - Article
After a long period of growth in the number of disability insurance beneficiaries in the US, in the early 2010s, the total number of disability insurance recipients began to contract, and the labor force participation rate of people with disabilities began to grow. In Social Security Disability...

December 31, 2024 - Article
In How Do Economic Conditions Affect Earnings and Return to Disability Programs for Beneficiaries Whose Benefits Were Terminated?...
December 31, 2024 - Article
Manasi Deshpande (pronounced MAH-nuh-see desh-PAHN-day), an associate professor of economics at the University of Chicago, focuses her research on public finance and labor markets, in particular on the effects of social insurance and public assistance programs. Deshpande initially became interested...

December 31, 2024 - Article
In Health Inequality and Economic Disparities by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender (NBER Working Paper 32971 an earlier version, NBER RDRC Paper NB23-11), Nicol Russo, Rory McGee, Mariacristina De Nardi, Margherita Borella, and Ross Abram use data from the Health and Retirement Study over the period...
October 23, 2024 - Article
NB23-21: Barriers Faced by People Experiencing Homelessness in Los Angeles when Filing Social Security Disability Appeals: A Qualitative and Community-Engaged Study, Philip Armour, Alex Sizemore, and Jordy D. Coutin Abstract: People experiencing homelessness (PEH) face many barriers to accessing...

October 23, 2024 - Article
In...

October 23, 2024 - Article
Despite the USs well-established banking system, a significant share of the population has limited access to basic financial services that facilitate saving, investing, and preparing for retirement. In Financial Inclusion, Inequality, and Retirement Trends among Older Workers (NBER RDRC Paper NB22...
October 23, 2024 - Article
The Social Security Administration (SSA) convened its 2024 Retirement and Disability Research Consortium (RDRC) Meeting in Washington, DC on August 79. The meeting featured research funded through the NBER RDRC as well as through RDRCs based at Boston College, the City University of New York, the...

October 23, 2024 - Article
Social Security Disability (SSD) program beneficiaries, like other consumers, have been negatively affected by inflation over the past several years. In a survey from June of 2023, more than half (59 percent) of SSD program beneficiaries reported higher prices for the disability-related goods and...
October 18, 2024 - Workshop
September 20, 2024 - Workshop

August 28, 2024 - Article
It costs the government more to cover the same beneficiary under Medicare than Medicaid, according to a study of disabled individuals who aged from one program into the other. In Medicaid vs Medicare: Evidence from Medicaid to Medicare Transitions at 65...

August 28, 2024 - Article
Automatic enrollment and automatic contribution escalation in retirement savings plans have become increasingly prevalent in the United States. 40 percent of US private industry workers participate in savings plans with automatic enrollment, and 40 percent of plans administered by Vanguard...
August 28, 2024 - Article
It was a long and winding road from Angelino Viceiszas accounting studies at the University of Curaao to his recent presidency of the National Economic Association and his current status as a tenured professor of economics at Spelman College and codirector of the NBERs Retirement and Disability...

August 28, 2024 - Article
Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) family maximum rules cap the benefits that can be paid to a disabled workers family at the lower of 85 percent of the workers average indexed monthly earnings and 150 percent of their primary insurance amount. The effect of these rules is that family...
August 2024 - Working Paper32828 Medium- and long-run dynamics undermine the effect of automatic enrollment and default savings-rate auto-escalation on retirement savings. Our analysis of nine 401(k) plans incorporates the facts that employees frequently leave firms (often before matching contributions from their employer have...
July 3, 2024 - Article
Nicole Maestas, Harvard University and NBER Angelino Viceisza, Spelman College and NBER On February 3, 2023, the NBER Retirement and Disability Research Center (RDRC) sponsored a data workshop with a presentation by Amanda Sonnega, a research scientist with the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) at...

July 3, 2024 - Article
Native Americans have long experienced poor health outcomes and high mortality rates. Poverty, a critical social determinant of health, is pervasive in tribal communities, contributing to persistent inequities. In an effort to address these challenges, some Native American tribes have turned to...
July 3, 2024 - Article
In 2022, the US Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program provided $51 billion in cash payments to 1 million children and 5.5 million adults with disabilities and low incomes. Eligibility standards for potential beneficiaries under 18 years of age require marked and severe functional limitations in...

July 3, 2024 - Article
In a new study of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in SSDI Entry and Health (NBER RDRC Center Paper NB23-04)...
October 2023 - Working Paper31816 Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income, the United States two primary disability income support programs, each offer a pathway to public health insurance in addition to cash benefits. This implies that expansions in public health insurance availability, such as the...
October 4, 2023 - Article
The Social Security Administration (SSA) convened its 2023 Retirement and Disability Research Consortium (RDRC) Meeting virtually on August 34. The meeting featured research funded through the NBER RDRC as well as through other RDRC centers based at Boston College, the University of Michigan, and...

October 4, 2023 - Article
The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated health and economic burdens have unfolded quite differently across states in the US. These differences are due to a variety of factors, including population density, socioeconomic status, health, and state policies. Variation across states in the timing and...

October 4, 2023 - Article
The need for long-term, nonacute caregiving is projected to rise significantly in coming decades. The number of Americans ages 65 and older is expected to double by 2050 and approximately one-third of adults in this age range report multiple functional limitations. Much of the growing demand for...
October 4, 2023 - Article
The 2023 NBER Summer Institutes Economics of Social Security meeting featured a panel discussion examining the long-term dynamics of the employment-to-population ratio (EPOP). Karen Glenn, Deputy Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration (SSA), began by providing an overview of the...
August 2023 - Working Paper31601 We study a retirement savings plan with a default contribution rate of 12% of income, which is much higher than previously studied defaults. Twenty-five percent of employees had not opted out of this default 12 months after hire; a literature review finds that the corresponding fraction in plans...
August 2023 - Working Paper31557 Public disability programs provide financial support to 12 million working-age individuals per year, though not all eligible individuals take up these programs. Mixed evidence exists regarding the impact of Medicaid eligibility expansion on program take-up, and even less is known about the...
July 2023 - Working Paper31512 How does the expectation that a child will receive government benefits in adulthood affect parental investments in the child's human capital? Most parents whose children receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits overestimate the likelihood that their child will receive SSI benefits in...
July 2023 - Working Paper31499 For many Americans the question of when to claim Social Security benefits is one of the most consequential financial decisions they will ever face. While acknowledging that individuals differ in terms of optimal timing for starting Social Security benefits, many economists argue that an average...
July 2023 - Working Paper31450 A significant share of the rapidly growing demand for long-term care is met by family members, many of whom also work, and family caregiving has been shown to affect labor market outcomes. We use survey responses about family caregiving roles linked to administrative earnings records to estimate the...

July 1, 2023 - Article
Mortality rates among Black Americans are substantially higher than rates among White Americans. Factors linked to structural racism contribute to this outcome, including differences in health care access and quality, poverty, education, neighborhood, and lifestyle. While the racial mortality gap...
May 2023 - Working Paper31200 Using the Survey of Consumer Finances, I find that the Black/white gap in standard net worth widened from 1989 to 2019 but narrowed between Hispanics and (non-Hispanic) whites. When the definition of wealth is expanded to incorporate Social Security and defined benefit pension wealth (both the...

March 31, 2023 - Article
During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, workers ages 50 to 70 were about 10 percent less likely to be working relative to pre-pandemic levels. Unlike in previous recessions, when older workers turned to Social Security disability insurance or retirement benefits, the drop in employment in...
March 31, 2023 - Article
Recently approved papers NB22-01: Older Workers Employment and Social Security Spillovers through the Second Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Gopi Shah Goda, Emilie Jackson, Lauren Hersch Nicholas, and Sarah Stith Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a large and immediate drop in employment among...

March 31, 2023 - Article
For American workers anticipating receiving Social Security retirement benefits, the solvency of the Social Security system is a relevant and pressing concern. The OASDI Social Security trust funds represent the accumulated surplus that remains from payroll tax income paid into the system by current...

March 31, 2023 - Article
Many older American households approaching retirement age have accumulated little in the way of retirement savings. Over the past two decades, behavioral researchers have explored a variety of potential nudges designed to increase retirement savings. Many of these interventions have been shown to...
February 3, 2023 - Workshop

January 18, 2023 - Article
The US is one of the few countries worldwide that does not have a federal paid family leave (PFL) policy. In the absence of a federal policy, some states have adopted PFL policies, starting with California in 2004 and now including 11 states and the District of Columbia. These PFL policies provide...

January 18, 2023 - Article
Recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) are eligible for Medicare two years after they become eligible for cash benefits. However, traditional Medicare has substantial cost-sharing and premiums Medicare Part B premiums amount to over 10 percent of the average monthly SSDI benefit,...

January 18, 2023 - Article
Following the 2010 Affordable Care Act, 39 states and the District of Columbia have expanded Medicaid to cover virtually all adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level Existing studies have reached differing conclusions as to the effect of Medicaid expansion on employment...