While research shows that there are large gains in lifetime wealth from delaying claiming Social Security, most people claim at or before full retirement age. We fielded an original, nationally representative survey to gain insight into people's rationales for their Social Security claiming...

Delaying Social Security claiming is equivalent to buying an annuity, as individuals who delay forgo current benefits in exchange for higher monthly benefits in the future. Despite growing evidence that this annuity is offered on extremely generous terms, the majority of people claim well before...

This is the introduction and summary to the fifth phase of an ongoing project on Social Security Programs and Retirement Around the World. The first phase described the retirement Incentives inherent in plan provisions and documented the strong relationship across countries between social...

Since September 2003, the Retirement Research Center at the National Bureau of Economic Research has conducted a coordinated series of investigations on Social Security in a changing environment and the potential routes to sustainable solvency. The Center supports extensive collaborative...

This paper looks at the relationship between the institutional design of the social security system and retirement from the labour force in three countries: Italy, Spain and the USA. Our works stresses the importance of dynamic incentives embedded in social security systems throughout the world...

This paper looks at the relationship between the institutional design of the social security system and retirement from the labour force in three countries: Italy, Spain and the USA. Our work stresses the importance of dynamic incentives embedded in social security systems throughout the world...

This paper looks at the relationship between the institutional design of the social security system and retirement from the labour force in three countries: Italy, Spain and the USA. Our works stresses the importance of dynamic incentives embedded in social security systems throughout the world...

There are two overriding problems faced by ageing societies. One is the financing of public pension (social security in US terms) programmes. The other is paying for healthcare. This paper considers the healthcare issue briefly, emphasising that the issue arises primarily because of advances in...

The strong link between health insurance and employment in the United States may cause workers to delay retirement until they become eligible for Medicare at age 65. However, some employers extend health insurance benefits to their retirees, and individuals who are eligible for such retiree...