Replacing Income in Retirement for the Newly Retired: A Distributional Analysis of Gross and Net Replacement Rates

Income replacement after retirement is an increasingly important economic policy area of social concern. This study examines three different measures of replacement income, including the effect of taxes on the estimated replacement rates of new retirees in the Health and Retirement Study. An analysis of replacement rates on average and in different parts of the distribution shows that married, older, and voluntary retirees have the highest replacement rates and that income from pensions and Social Security still form the majority of retirement income replacement.