IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/epa/cepapn/2015-02.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Racial Morbidity Gap: Implications for Raising the Retirement Age

Author

Abstract

Proposals to reduce Social Security benefits collected before age 70 argue that Americans on average are living longer and should therefore work longer. But averages across racial groups hide crucial differences in quality of life, ability to work and longevity. While increasing the normal retirement age will make it more difficult for all Americans to experience a healthy and active retirement, Blacks will be disproportionately affected. For example, Blacks are more likely to develop adverse health conditions that limit their ability to work and to report declining health. The average black American will experience physical limitations before the normal retirement age of 67.

Suggested Citation

  • Teresa Ghilarducci & Kyle Moore, 2015. "The Racial Morbidity Gap: Implications for Raising the Retirement Age," SCEPA policy note series. 2015-02, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
  • Handle: RePEc:epa:cepapn:2015-02
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.economicpolicyresearch.org/images/docs/research/retirement_security/Moore_Racial_Morbidity_Gap.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steven A. Haas & Patrick M. Krueger & Leah Rohlfsen, 2012. "Race/Ethnic and Nativity Disparities in Later Life Physical Performance: The Role of Health and Socioeconomic Status Over the Life Course," Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Gerontological Society of America, vol. 67(2), pages 238-248.
    2. Eileen M. Crimmins & Hiram Beltrán-Sánchez, 2010. "Mortality and Morbidity Trends: Is There Compression of Morbidity?," Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Gerontological Society of America, vol. 66(1), pages 75-86.
    3. Teresa Ghilarducci & Kyle Moore, 2014. "The Racial Longevity Gap Past Age 65: Implications For Raising the Retirement Age," SCEPA policy note series. 2014-01, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    4. Barry P. Bosworth & Kathleen Burke, 2014. "Differential Mortality and Retirement Benefits in the Health and Retirement Study," Working Papers, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College wp2014-4, Center for Retirement Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bridget Fisher, 2015. "The Myth of Self-Financing: The Trade-Offs Behind the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project," SCEPA working paper series. 2015-04, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    2. Teresa Ghilarducci & Kyle Moore, 2015. "Racially Disparate Effects of Raising the Retirement Age," SCEPA working paper series. 2015-03, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    3. Holzmann, Robert & Alonso-García, Jennifer & Labit-Hardy, Heloise & Villegas, Andres M., 2017. "NDC Schemes and Heterogeneity in Longevity: Proposals for Redesign," IZA Discussion Papers 11193, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Anne R Pebley & Noreen Goldman & Theresa Andrasfay & Boriana Pratt, 2021. "Trajectories of physical functioning among older adults in the US by race, ethnicity and nativity: Examining the role of working conditions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-22, March.
    5. Matthew Weinzierl, 2014. "Seesaws and Social Security Benefits Indexing," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 45(2 (Fall)), pages 137-196.
    6. James N. Laditka & Sarah B. Laditka, 2018. "Lifetime Disadvantages after Childhood Adversity: Health Problems Limiting Work and Shorter Life," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 680(1), pages 259-277, November.
    7. Boen, Courtney, 2016. "The role of socioeconomic factors in Black-White health inequities across the life course: Point-in-time measures, long-term exposures, and differential health returns," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 63-76.
    8. Alan J. Auerbach & Kerwin K. Charles & Courtney C. Coile & William Gale & Dana Goldman & Ronald Lee & Charles M. Lucas & Peter R. Orszag & Louise M. Sheiner & Bryan Tysinger & David N. Weil & Justin W, 2017. "How the Growing Gap in Life Expectancy May Affect Retirement Benefits and Reforms," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 42(3), pages 475-499, July.
    9. Lindgren, Björn, 2016. "The Rise in Life Expectancy, Health Trends among the Elderly, and the Demand for Health and Social Care," Working Papers 142, National Institute of Economic Research.
    10. Ryan Masters & Robert Hummer & Daniel Powers & Audrey Beck & Shih-Fan Lin & Brian Finch, 2014. "Long-Term Trends in Adult Mortality for U.S. Blacks and Whites: An Examination of Period- and Cohort-Based Changes," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(6), pages 2047-2073, December.
    11. Sarah Mustillo & Miao Li & Kenneth F. Ferraro, 2021. "Evaluating the Cumulative Impact of Childhood Misfortune: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 50(3), pages 1073-1109, August.
    12. Janet Currie & Hannes Schwandt & Josselin Thuilliez, 2020. "Pauvreté, Egalité, Mortalité: mortality (in)equality in France and the United States," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(1), pages 197-231, January.
    13. Janet Currie & Hannes Schwandt & Josselin Thuilliez, 2020. "Pauvreté, Egalité, Mortalité: mortality (in)equality in France and the United States," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(1), pages 197-231, January.
    14. William Lim & Gaurav Khemka & David Pitt & Bridget Browne, 2019. "A method for calculating the implied no-recovery three-state transition matrix using observable population mortality incidence and disability prevalence rates among the elderly," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 245-282, September.
    15. Ezra Fishman, 2017. "Risk of Developing Dementia at Older Ages in the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(5), pages 1897-1919, October.
    16. A. Remund & S. Cullati & S. Sieber & C. Burton-Jeangros & M. Oris, 2019. "Longer and healthier lives for all? Successes and failures of a universal consumer-driven healthcare system, Switzerland, 1990–2014," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 64(8), pages 1173-1181, November.
    17. Matthew Weinzierl, 2014. "Seesaws and Social Security Benefits Indexing," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 49(2 (Fall)), pages 137-196.
    18. Courtney Coile & Kevin Milligan & David A. Wise, 2017. "Health Capacity to Work at Older Ages: Evidence from the United States," NBER Chapters, in: Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: The Capacity to Work at Older Ages, pages 359-394, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Courtney Coile, 2018. "Working Longer in the U.S.: Trends and Explanations," NBER Working Papers 24576, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Anusha M Vable & Paola Gilsanz & Thu T Nguyen & Ichiro Kawachi & M Maria Glymour, 2017. "Validation of a theoretically motivated approach to measuring childhood socioeconomic circumstances in the Health and Retirement Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-23, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Retirement; 401(k); Pensions; Race; Morbidity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies
    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:epa:cepapn:2015-02. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Bridget Fisher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cenewus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.