@article {11551, title = {The Changing Picture of Who Claims Social Security Early}, number = {2021-30}, year = {2021}, institution = {AARP Public Policy Institute}, address = {Washington, D.C.}, abstract = {The authors identify the demographic, employment, and economic characteristics associated with those who claim at the EEA and relate these characteristics to people who claim after it.}, keywords = {claims, Retirement, Social Security}, doi = {10.26419/ppi.00133.001}, author = {Philip Armour and Knapp, David} } @article {11549, title = {The Consequences of Claiming Social Security Benefits at Age 62}, year = {2021}, institution = {AARP Public Policy Institute}, address = {Washington, D.C.}, abstract = {As individuals approach their 60s, they face the important decision about when to start claiming Social Security retirement benefits. {\textquotedblleft}The Consequences of Claiming Social Security Benefits at Age 62{\textquotedblright} by Philip Armour and David Knapp of the RAND Corporation asks what financial consequences the decision to collect early might have for the individual over time. A companion report, {\textquotedblleft}The Changing Picture of Who Claims Social Security Early,{\textquotedblright} examines the characteristics of those who decide to start collecting at the early eligibility age (EEA) of 62 compared with those who wait. Importantly, that study suggests that employment losses resulting from the COVID-19 recession may lead to earlier claiming{\textemdash}in particular among those with less education and those living in more rural areas. As the current study shows, this could have significant implications for the financial security of a whole cohort of retirees in the coming decades given the penalties associated with early claiming. }, keywords = {consequences, Social Security}, doi = {10.26419/ppi.00134.001}, author = {Philip Armour and Knapp, David} } @article {11550, title = {The Consequences of Claiming Social Security Benefits at Age 62}, year = {2021}, publisher = {AARP Public Policy Institute}, address = {Washington, D.C.}, abstract = {As individuals approach their 60s, they face the important decision about when to start claiming Social Security retirement benefits. {\textquotedblleft}The Consequences of Claiming Social Security Benefits at Age 62{\textquotedblright} by Philip Armour and David Knapp of the RAND Corporation asks what financial consequences the decision to collect early might have for the individual over time. A companion report, {\textquotedblleft}The Changing Picture of Who Claims Social Security Early,{\textquotedblright} examines the characteristics of those who decide to start collecting at the early eligibility age (EEA) of 62 compared with those who wait. Importantly, that study suggests that employment losses resulting from the COVID-19 recession may lead to earlier claiming{\textemdash}in particular among those with less education and those living in more rural areas. As the current study shows, this could have significant implications for the financial security of a whole cohort of retirees in the coming decades given the penalties associated with early claiming.}, keywords = {consequences, Social Security}, url = {https://www.aarp.org/ppi/info-2021/-the-consequences-of-claiming-social-security-benefits-at-age-62.html}, author = {Philip Armour and Knapp, David} } @article {9794, title = {The Role of Information in Disability Insurance Application: An Analysis of the Social Security Statement Phase-In}, journal = {American Economic Journal: Economic Policy}, volume = {10}, year = {2018}, pages = {1-41}, abstract = {This paper exploits a natural experiment in information provision on US Disability Insurance (DI) applications: the Social Security statement. Although the effect of the statement on DI application was negligible in the general health and retirement study population, among those previously reporting a work limitation, biennial DI application rates approximately doubled. This effect was driven by previously uninformed individuals. Additional analyses show these were new applicants and were no less likely to be accepted onto DI, accounting for a substantial fraction of the rise in DI rolls from 1994 to 2004 and indicating the importance of informational frictions in disability policymaking. }, keywords = {Disabilities, Long-term Care, Social Security, Survey Methodology}, issn = {1945-7731}, doi = {10.1257/pol.20160605}, url = {https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20160605https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdf/10.1257/pol.20160605}, author = {Philip Armour} } @article {9149, title = {Drawing down retirement wealth: Interactions between Social Security wealth and private retirement savings}, number = {WR-1165}, year = {2017}, month = {01/2017}, institution = {RAND Corporation}, address = {Santa Monica, CA}, keywords = {Consumption and Savings, Retirement Planning and Satisfaction, Social Security}, doi = {10.7249/WR1165}, url = {http://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR1165.html}, author = {Philip Armour and Hung, Angela} } @article {10186, title = {The Effect of Social Security Information on the Labor Supply and Savings of Older Americans}, year = {2016}, month = {09/2016}, institution = {Michigan Retirement Research Center- University of Michigan}, address = {Ann Arbor, United States}, abstract = {This paper examines how older workers adjust their labor supply in response to information they receive about their retirement wealth from the provision of the Social Security Statement. We find that older male workers{\textquoteright} labor supply is highly responsive to receiving personalized information about future Social Security benefits, leading to a reduction of 119 hours worked per year, on average. However, our estimates point to significant heterogeneity in this response, with workers at the lower end of the hours-worked distribution increasing their labor supply and those at the high end decreasing their labor supply. We argue differences in knowledge about Social Security benefits across the labor supply distribution can explain much of this heterogeneity. We additionally explore the extent to which the information on the Statement may have led some workers to mistakenly reduce their labor supply by too much due to a lack of understanding of the dynamic nature of the Statement{\textquoteright}s benefit projections with respect to earnings. Receipt of a second Statement led all but the lowest hour workers to increase their labor supply relative to workers who did not receive a second Statement. This is consistent with workers misunderstanding the information provided as accumulated rather than projected wealth. Our results point to older workers being very responsive to Social Security information, which highlights the need to accurately convey information about both pension wealth and its sensitivity to changes in earnings.}, keywords = {Labor Supply, Social Security}, url = {https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9948/f3430170f13c34b24b71eca001723c55f03a.pdf}, author = {Philip Armour and Lovenheim, Michael F.} }