To measure how policy changes affect social welfare, economists typically look at how policies affect behavior, and use a formal model to infer welfare consequences from the behavioral responses. But when different models can map the same behavior to very different welfare impacts, it becomes...

We study choice over prescription insurance plans by the elderly using government administrative data to evaluate how these choices are made and evolve over time. We find that there is large "foregone savings" from not choosing the lowest cost plan that has grown over time. We develop a...

Focal retirement ages are a central feature of Social Security programs around the world, and provide a potentially powerful tool for policy makers who are interested in reforming retirement systems to address the growing funding shortfalls. But these tools often come hand in hand with...