http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/49331 2013-05-19T06:57:14Z http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/97020 Exchanging Delayed Social Security Benefits for Lump Sums: Could This Incentivize Longer Work Careers? Chai, Jingjing; Maurer, Raimond; Mitchell, Olivia S.; Rogalla, Ralph Social Security benefits are currently provided as a lifelong benefit stream, though some workers would be willing to trade a portion of their annuity streams in exchange for a lump sum amount. This paper explores whether allowing people to receive a lump sum as a payment for delayed retirement rather than as an addition to their lifetime Social Security benefits might induce them to work longer. We model the factors that influence how people trade off a Social Security stream for a lump sum, and we also examine the consequences of such tradeoffs for work, retirement, and life cycle wellbeing. Our base case indicates that workers given the chance to receive their delayed retirement credit as a lump sum payment would boost their average retirement age by l.5-2 years. This will interest policymakers seeking to reform the Social Security system without raising costs or cutting benefits, while enhancing the incentives to delay retirement. Working Paper 2012-266 2012-10-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/97019 Personality Traits and Economic Preparation for Retirement Hurd, Michael D.; Duckworth, Angela Lee; Rohwedder, Susann; Weir, David R. This paper assesses the effects of personality traits on economic preparation for retirement, wealth accumulation, and consumption, among persons 66 to 69 years of age. Among the five chief personality traits of neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness, we focus most on conscientiousness. We find levels of adequate economic preparation for retirement ranging from 29 percent to 90 percent and that conscientiousness positively affects the proportion of persons adequately prepared for retirement, while neuroticism negatively affects it. Both consumption and wealth increase with conscientiousness but wealth increases faster, indicating that more conscientious persons save more out of retirement resources. Working paper: WP2012-279 2012-09-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/95914 At the Corner of Main and Wall Street: Family Pension Responses to Liquidity Change and Perceived Returns Bridges, Thomas; Stafford, Frank P. The U. S. economy experienced a shift away from employment with coverage under a defined benefit (DB) pension plan during 1991-2009. Defined contribution (DC) plan coverage seems not to have risen much, if at all, for married men in the recent decade. Overall, the percent of the labor force covered by any pension type fell over the period 2001-2009, with most of the shift occurring in 2001-2003, as indicated by data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). We seek to determine the factors that lead families to lose or gain DC coverage and to put money into their private pensions or to draw money out of private pensions and annuities prior to age 65. The importance of such discretionary participation and savings responses is accentuated by both the presence of DC pensions, and, presumably, learning that such pensions can be used to stabilize finances prior to retirement. Besides the impact of the overall economic climate, individual, family level events and cash flow changes are expected to play a role in the decision to add to or withdraw from a DC pension plan. Preliminary studies suggest that the savings response by households to recent economic uncertainties during 2009-2011, was greater overall savings and an increase in liquid asset holding, a result consistent with classic predictions of a response to economic turmoil. Overall, pension fund inflows have not been a part of the increase in private saving in the Great Recession. Working Paper: WP 2012-282 2012-12-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/95904 The Great Recession, Older Workers with Disabilities, and Implications for Retirement Security Sevak, Purvi; Schmidt, Lucie; Altindag, Onur Evidence suggests that older workers with disabilities have been hit particularly hard by the recent recession. The increased difficulty in finding a job faced by individuals with disabilities, combined with the longer spells of unemployment experienced by all workers in this recession, could mean that laid-off disabled workers in their pre-retirement years may never return to work. In this paper, we use data from the 2004-2010 waves of the Health and Retirement Study to examine how the great recession has affected workers with chronic health conditions that put them at greater risk of disability. Our results suggest that increases in job losses were 30% greater for those with greater underlying risk of disability than for the general HRS population, and decreases in consumption were 20% greater. These results have important implications for the well-being of disabled individuals nearing retirement. Working Paper: WP 2012-277 2012-11-01T00:00:00Z