Related UI Researchers

Publications on Retirees/Seniors

Recent growth in wage inequality has important implications for Social Security solvency and benefit distributions. Because only earnings below the taxable maximum are subject to payroll taxes, concentrated wage growth among higher earners generates less revenue than more evenly distributed growth. Social Security's progressive benefit formula increases benefit payouts when shares of workers with low wages grow. We use a dynamic microsimulation model to examine aggregate and distributional consequences of alternative scenarios about future wage growth. We find that relatively modest changes in assumptions about wage differentials generate marked changes in projected Social Security benefits, poverty, and long-term financing status.

Over the past several decades, the volatility of family income has increased markedly, and own earnings volatility has remained relatively flat. Volatility may affect retirement wealth, depending on whether volatility affects accrued pension contributions or withdrawals or earnings credited toward future Social Security benefits. This project assesses the effect of the volatility of individual and family earnings on asset accumulation and projected retirement wealth using survey data matched to administrative earnings records.

Nearly 154,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. Another half million are at risk of homelessness because rent consumes more than half their income. In his run for the White House, President Obama pledged to deliver on a zero-tolerance policy for veteran homelessness. But for low-income veterans who fall in between homelessness and homeownership, there is little to help them afford rental housing. That lack of affordable housing, research shows, is the primary driver of homelessness for veterans and civilians alike.

Medicare and other insurers generally ignore the importance of established chronic illnesses in generating demands on the health care system and escalating costs, Institute Fellow Robert Berenson told the House Ways and Means Committee. At the same time, delivery system reforms are likely to fail unless immediate steps are taken to address the likely collapse of the primary care physician workforce in many parts of the country. He also underscored the need for a public plan -- patterned on Medicare but separate from it -- as an option for those seeking care.

High out-of-pocket health care costs may have serious repercussions for older people and their families. This paper examines the impact of health problems at older ages on out-of-pocket health care spending and other types of expenditures. The results show that medical conditions increase health spending, particularly for households ages 51 to 64, but do not generally reduce nonhealth spending. Health conditions do, however, reduce nonhealth spending for low-income households ages 51 to 64, suggesting that holes in the health safety net before the Medicare eligibility age force some low-income people to lower their living standards to cover medical expenses.