Older Peoples' Willingness to Delay Social Security Claiming / Raimond Maurer, Olivia S. Mitchell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Maurer, Raimond.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Mitchell, Olivia S.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w22942.

NBER working paper series no. w22942

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2016.

Summary:

We have designed and fielded an experimental module in the 2014 HRS which seeks to measure older persons' willingness to voluntarily defer claiming of Social Security benefits. In addition, we evaluate the stated willingness of older individuals to work longer, depending on the Social Security incentives offered to delay claiming their benefits. Our project extends previous work by analyzing the results from our HRS module and comparing findings from other data sources which included very much smaller samples of older persons. We show that half of the respondents would delay claiming if no work requirement were in place under the status quo, and only slightly fewer, 46%, with a work requirement. We also asked respondents how large a lump sum they would need with or without a work requirement. In the former case, the average amount needed to induce delayed claiming was about $60,400, while when part-time work was required, the average was $66,700. This implies a low utility value of leisure foregone of only $6,300, or under 20% of average household income.

Notes:

Print version record

December 2016.