Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) applications and receipts vary greatly by state. This paper investigates the extent to which this geographic variation in SSDI applications reflects differences in health, demographics, and employment characteristics, state policies, and politics. We...

Much as in previous recessions, the number of applications to public disability insurance programs increased sharply during the Great Recession. We find that the composition of applicants also changes across business cycles. For example, applicants during economic downturns, and especially...

There is relatively little known about the geographic mobility of the elderly in general. Despite the stereotype of retiring in Florida, recent work has documented very little home equity changes among the elderly (Venti and Wise 2002, 2004; Anderson, French, and Lam 2004; Fisher et al. 2007), and that...

What are the health impacts of retirement? As talk of raising retirement ages in pensions and social security schemes continues around the world, it is important to know both the costs and benefits for the individual, as well as the governments' budgets. In this paper we use the Survey of...

The stock market crash eliminated more than $2 tril­lion in wealth held in defined contribution retirement accounts, about one-third of the pre-crash total. Un­less offset by a later retirement age and/or increased retirement saving, this wealth shock will significantly reduce the retirement...

Many workers nearing retirement experienced a dra­matic decrease in their retirement assets due to the stock market downturn. In order to maintain their expected standard of living in retirement, workers will need to work longer, save more, or do both. To mea­sure the response of older workers...

With the virtual disappearance of traditional pensions, declining Social Security replacement rates, and longer life spans, the retirement landscape is shifting dramatically. Today, responsibility for a comfortable retirement rests mostly on the individual. This change has led to widespread...

Cross-sectional evidence in the United States finds that informal caregivers have less attachment to the labor force, measured both by the number of hours worked and labor force participation. The causal mechanism is unclear: do children who work less become informal caregivers, or are children...

Using consumption and wealth data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), this paper explores the impact of children leaving home on household consumption. We find that households maintain their household-level consumption, despite the fact that the number of individuals in the household has...