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Do the Elderly Respond to Taxes on Earnings? Evidence from the Social Security Retirement Earnings Test

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Author Info
David S. Loughran
Steven Haider

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Abstract

The effective tax on earnings embodied in the Social Security retirement earnings test has been as high as 50 percent. Despite numerous empirical studies, there is surprisingly little agreement about whether the earnings test affects male labor supply. In this paper, the authors provide a comprehensive analysis of the earnings test for men using longitudinal administrative earnings data and more commonly used survey data. They find that much of the response in survey data is obfuscated by measurement error and labor market rigidities. Their results suggest a consistent and substantial response to the earnings test, especially for younger men.

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Paper provided by RAND Corporation Publications Department in its series Working Papers with number 223-1.

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Length: 53 pages
Date of creation: Apr 2007
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Handle: RePEc:ran:wpaper:223-1

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Burkhauser, Richard V & Turner, John A, 1978. "A Time-Series Analysis on Social Security and Its Effect on the Market Work of Men at Younger Ages," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(4), pages 701-15, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Gustman, Alan L & Steinmeier, Thomas L, 1985. "The 1983 Social Security Reforms and Labor Supply Adjustments of Older Individuals in the Long Run," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(2), pages 237-53, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Jonathan F. Pingle, 2006. "Social Security's delayed retirement credit and the labor supply of older men," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2006-37, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  4. Alan L. Gustman & Thomas L. Steinmeier, 1983. "Minimum Hours Constraints and Retirement Behavior," NBER Working Papers 0940, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Michael D. Hurd, 1993. "The Effect of Labor Market Rigidities on the Labor Force Behavior of Older Workers," NBER Working Papers 4462, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Leora Friedberg, 2000. "The Labor Supply Effects of the Social Security Earnings Test," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(1), pages 48-63, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Burtless, Gary & Moffitt, Robert A, 1985. "The Joint Choice of Retirement Age and Postretirement Hours of Work," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(2), pages 209-36, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Baker, Michael & Benjamin, Dwayne, 1999. "How do retirement tests affect the labour supply of older men?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 27-51, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. John Rust & Christopher Phelan, 1997. "How Social Security and Medicare Affect Retirement Behavior in a World of Incomplete Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(4), pages 781-832, July.
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  10. Richard Disney & Sarah Smith, 2002. "The Labour Supply Effect of the Abolition of the Earnings Rule for Older Workers in the United Kingdom," CeRP Working Papers 17, Center for Research on Pensions and Welfare Policies, Turin (Italy). [Downloadable!]
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  11. Emmanuel Saez, 1999. "Do Taxpayers Bunch at Kink Points?," NBER Working Papers 7366, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Bound, John & Krueger, Alan B, 1991. "The Extent of Measurement Error in Longitudinal Earnings Data: Do Two Wrongs Make a Right?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(1), pages 1-24, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Jonathan Gruber & Peter Orszag, 2000. "Does the Social Security Earnings Test Affect Labor Supply and Benefits Receipt?," NBER Working Papers 7923, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Lundberg, Shelly J, 1985. "Tied Wage-Hours Offers and the Endogeneity of Wages," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(3), pages 405-10, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  15. David A. Wise, 1996. "Advances in the Economics of Aging," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number wise96-1.
  16. Reimers, Cordelia & Honig, Marjorie, 1993. "The Perceived Budget Constraint under Social Security: Evidence from Reentry Behavior," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 11(1), pages 184-204, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Alan S. Blinder & Roger H. Gordon & Donald E. Wise, 1981. "Reconsidering the Work Disincentive Effects of Social Security," NBER Working Papers 0562, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Bruce Fallick & Jonathan Pingle, 2006. "A cohort-based model of labor force participation," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2007-09, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  2. Gary V. Engelhardt & Anil Kumar, 2007. "The Repeal of the Retirement Earnings Test and the Labor Supply of Older Men," Working Papers, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College wp2007-01, Center for Retirement Research, revised May 2007. [Downloadable!]
  3. Giovanni Mastrobuoni, 2006. "The Social Security Earnings Test Removal: Money Saved or Money Spent by the Trust Fund?," Working Papers 892, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section.. [Downloadable!]
  4. Pierre-Carl Michaud & Arthur van Soest, 2007. "How Did the Elimination of the Earnings Test above the Normal Retirement Age Affect Retirement Expectations?," IZA Discussion Papers 2868, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Lucie Schmidt & Purvi Sevak, 2006. "Taxes, Wages, and the Labor Supply of Older Americans," Working Papers wp139, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Leora Friedberg & Anthony Webb, 2006. "Persistence in Labor Supply and the Response to the Social Security Earnings Test," Working Papers, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College wp2006-27, Center for Retirement Research, revised Dec 2006. [Downloadable!]
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