When to claim Social Security is one of the most important decisions Americans face when approaching retirement. Recently, several unconventional claiming strategies have come to light ('Free Loan,' 'Claim and Suspend,' and 'Claim Now, Claim More Later') that have the potential to pay higher...

The United States economy, over the course of the twentieth century, has taken on a highly professional cast. By 1988, professional, technical, and kindred workers made up 20 percent or more of the labor force in industries ranging from health care and education, to high tech manufacturing and...

Today men on average retire at 63 and women at 62, and they can expect to spend 20 years in retirement. But if Americans continue to retire as early as they do today, many will not have adequate income once they stop working. Social Security will provide less relative to pre-retirement earnings...

Today, the average retirement age is 63. If people continue to retire at 63, they are going to face a severe decline in living standards at retirement for a number of reasons. First, at any given retirement age, Social Security benefits will replace less of pre-retirement earnings as the Normal...

With a contracting retirement income system and increased life expectancy, working longer has emerged as perhaps the most effective lever for improving retirement income security. More work at older ages should be entirely feasible for the bulk of the population, given that today’s workers are...

Most married men claim Social Security benefits at age 62 or 63, well short of the age that maximizes the expected present value of the average household’s benefits. That many married men “leave money on the table” is surprising. It is also problematic. It results in much lower benefits...

This chapter summarizes what is known about the labor supply of older American men, defined as those aged 55 years and over. The topic is of great interest because in the coming decades older individuals will comprise a much greater portion of the U.S. population, so the labor supply of older...

When to claim Social Security is one of the most important decisions Americans face when approaching retirement. Recently, several unconventional claiming strategies have come to light – “Free Loan,” “Claim and Suspend,” and “Claim Now, Claim More Later” – that have the potential...

Most married men claim Social Security benefits at age 62 or 63, well short of both Social Security’s Full Retirement Age and the age that maximizes the household’s expected present value of benefits (EPVB). This results in a loss of less than 4 percent in household EPBV. But essentially the...