IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/epa/cepawp/2020-02.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Illusory Benefits of Working Longer on Financial Preparedness for Retirement

Author

Listed:

Abstract

Older workers with insufficient savings are advised to delay retirement. Using Health and Retirement Study data, we compare outcomes of those who delay retirement, a possibly select group, with the predictions of a typical spreadsheet model. Work to age 70 is associated with an 18 percentage-point increase in the share financially prepared for retirement, compared with a predicted 46 percentage points because most older workers claim Social Security and retirement wealth barely increases. Drawing down retirement wealth while working makes sense for most, because earnings are lower than post-retirement income, in part because many older workers voluntarily work part time.

Suggested Citation

  • Teresa Ghilarducci & Michael Papadopoulos & Anthony Webb, 2020. "The Illusory Benefits of Working Longer on Financial Preparedness for Retirement," SCEPA working paper series. 2020-02, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    • Handle: RePEc:epa:cepawp:2020-02
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.economicpolicyresearch.org/images/docs/research/retirement_security/The_Illusory_Benefits_of_Working_Longer_Working_Paper_2020.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barbara A Butrica & Karen Elizabeth Smith & C. Eugene Steuerle, 2006. "Working for a Good Retirement," Working Papers, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College wp2006-8, Center for Retirement Research, revised May 2006.
    2. Alan J. Auerbach & Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Darryl Koehler & Manni Yu, 2017. "Is Uncle Sam Inducing the Elderly to Retire?," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(1), pages 1-42.
    3. Gopi Shah Goda & John B. Shoven & Sita Nataraj Slavov, 2009. "Removing the Disincentives in Social Security for Long Careers," NBER Chapters, in: Social Security Policy in a Changing Environment, pages 21-38, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Bronshtein, Gila & Scott, Jason & Shoven, John B. & Slavov, Sita Nataraj, 2019. "The power of working longer," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 623-644, October.
    5. Alicia H. Munnell & Anthony Webb & Francesca Golub-Sass, 2011. "How Much to Save for a Secure Retirement," Issues in Brief ib2011-13, Center for Retirement Research.
    6. James Poterba & Todd Sinai, 2008. "Tax Expenditures for Owner-Occupied Housing: Deductions for Property Taxes and Mortgage Interest and the Exclusion of Imputed Rental Income," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 84-89, May.
    7. James Poterba & Steven Venti & David Wise, 2011. "The Composition and Drawdown of Wealth in Retirement," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(4), pages 95-118, Fall.
    8. Andrew D. Biggs & Alicia H. Munnell & Anqi Chen, 2019. "Why Are 401(k)/IRA Balances Substantially Below Potential?," Working Papers, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College wp2019-14, Center for Retirement Research.
    9. Barbara A. Butrica & Karen E. Smith & C. Eugene Steuerle & Lucie G. Schmidt, 2007. "Working for a Good Retirement," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Dimitri B. Papadimitriou (ed.), Government Spending on the Elderly, chapter 6, pages 141-177, Palgrave Macmillan.
    10. Anderson, Patricia M & Gustman, Alan L & Steinmeier, Thomas L, 1999. "Trends in Male Labor Force Participation and Retirement: Some Evidence on the Role of Pensions and Social Security in the 1970s and 1980s," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(4), pages 757-783, October.
    11. Alan L. Gustman & Thomas L. Steinmeier & Nahid Tabatabai, 2010. "What the Stock Market Decline Means for the Financial Security and Retirement Choices of the Near-Retirement Population," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(1), pages 161-182, Winter.
    12. Mark Aguiar & Erik Hurst, 2005. "Consumption versus Expenditure," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(5), pages 919-948, October.
    13. 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.
    14. Barbara A. Butrica & Richard W. Johnson & Karen Elizabeth Smith & C. Eugene Steuerle, 2004. "Does Work Pay at Older Ages?," Working Papers, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College wp2004-30, Center for Retirement Research, revised Nov 2004.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Owen Davis, 2021. "Employment and Retirement Among Older Workers During the Covid-19 Pandemic," SCEPA working paper series. 2021-06, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    2. Owen Davis, 2021. "Employment and Retirement Among Older Workers During the Covid-19 Pandemic," SCEPA publication series. 2021-06, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.

    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. Chan, Sewin & Haughwout, Andrew & Tracy, Joseph, 2015. "How Mortgage Finance Affects the Urban Landscape," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 987-1045, Elsevier.
    2. David Love & Lucie Schmidt, 2015. "Comprehensive Wealth of Immigrants and Natives," Working Papers wp328, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    3. Mary J. Lopez & Sita Slavov, 2020. "Do immigrants delay retirement and social security claiming?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(10), pages 1105-1123, February.
    4. Murray, Tim & Dunn, Richard A., 2022. "Household production, home improvement, and housing investment among older Americans," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    5. Sheng Guo & William G. Hardin, 2017. "Financial and Housing Wealth, Expenditures and the Dividend to Ownership," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 58-96, January.
    6. Fang, H., 2016. "Insurance Markets for the Elderly," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 237-309, Elsevier.
    7. Davies, James B. & Yu, Xiaoyu, 2013. "Impacts of Cyclical Downturns on the Third Pillar of the RIS and Policy Responses," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2013-20, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 29 Apr 2013.
    8. Collins, J. Michael & Hembre, Erik & Urban, Carly, 2020. "Exploring the rise of mortgage borrowing among older Americans," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    9. Gopi Shah Goda & John Shoven & Sita Slavov, "undated". "A Tax On Work For The Elderly: Medicare As A Secondary Payer," Discussion Papers 08-60, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    10. Richard W. Johnson, 2011. "Phased Retirement and Workplace Flexibility for Older Adults," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 638(1), pages 68-85, November.
    11. Blundell, R. & French, E. & Tetlow, G., 2016. "Retirement Incentives and Labor Supply," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 457-566, Elsevier.
    12. Sebastian Devlin-Foltz & Alice Henriques Volz & John Edward Sabelhaus, 2015. "The Evolution of Retirement Wealth," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2015-9, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    13. Gopi Shah Goda & Emilie Jackson & Lauren Hersch Nicholas & Sarah See Stith, 2023. "The impact of Covid-19 on older workers’ employment and Social Security spillovers," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(2), pages 813-846, April.
    14. Eibich, Peter & Siedler, Thomas, 2020. "Retirement, intergenerational time transfers, and fertility," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    15. Allais, Olivier & Leroy, Pascal & Mink, Julia, 2020. "Changes in food purchases at retirement in France," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    16. Hertrich Markus, 2019. "A Novel Housing Price Misalignment Indicator for Germany," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 20(4), pages 759-794, December.
    17. Alicia H. Munnell & Steven A. Sass, 2007. "The Labor Supply of Older Americans," Working Papers, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College wp2007-12, Center for Retirement Research, revised Jun 2007.
    18. Eric French & John Bailey Jones, 2017. "Health, Health Insurance, and Retirement: A Survey," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 9(1), pages 383-409, September.
    19. Wu, Shang & Stevens, Ralph & Thorp, Susan, 2015. "Cohort and target age effects on subjective survival probabilities: Implications for models of the retirement phase," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 39-56.
    20. Guy Lacroix & Pierre-Carl Michaud, 2024. "Tax Incentives and Older Workers: Evidence from Canada," Cahiers de recherche / Working Papers 02, Chaire de recherche Jacques-Parizeau en politiques économiques / Jacques-Parizeau Research Chair in Economic Policy.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Retirement income; Social Security claiming; Older worker labor supply;
    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

    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:cepawp:2020-02. 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.