This paper shows that, contrary to commonly held views, the provisions of the social security law actually provide strong work incentives for older men. The reason is that, for most workers, higher current earnings lead to higher future social security benefits. These incentives have been...

The paper is an empirical cross-section study of the retirement decisions of American white men between the ages of 58 and 67. predicated on the theoretical notion that an individual retires when his reservation wage exceeds his market wage. Reservation wages are derived from an explicit utility...

It is by now widely recognized that investment decisions play a major role in the determination of individual age-earnings profiles. The purpose of this paper is to present a simple life-cycle model of investment in human capital in which leisure choices are explicitly incorporated. In so doing,...