New papers from the American Economic Journal

Life-Cycle Consumption Patterns at Older Ages in the United States and the United Kingdom: Can Medical Expenditures Explain the Difference?

James Banks, Richard Blundell, Peter Levell and James P. Smith

This paper documents significantly steeper declines in nondurable expenditures at older ages in the United Kingdom compared to the United States, in spite of income paths being similar. Several possible causes are explored, including different employment paths, housing ownership and expenses, levels and paths of health status, number of household members, and out-of-pocket medical expenditures. Among all the potential explanations considered, those relating to health care—differences in levels and age paths in medical expenses and medical expenditure risk—can fully account for the steeper declines in nondurable consumption in the United Kingdom compared to the United States.

Full-Text Access | Supplementary Materials Estimating the Value of Public Insurance Using Complementary Private Insurance Marika Cabral and Mark R. Cullen The welfare associated with public insurance is often difficult to quantify because the demand for coverage is unobserved and thus cannot be used to analyze welfare. However, in many settings, individuals can purchase private insurance to supplement public coverage. This paper outlines an approach to use data and variation from private complementary insurance to quantify welfare associated with counterfactuals related to compulsory public insurance. We then apply this approach using administrative data on disability insurance. Our findings suggest that public disability insurance generates substantial surplus for the sample population, and there may be gains to increasing the generosity of coverage. Full-Text Access | Supplementary Materials

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Upcoming event: “African American Economic Security and the Role of Social Security”

Urban Institute Events

African American Economic Security
and the Role of Social Security

Wednesday, July 24, 2019, 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Registration and breakfast available at 8:30 a.m.

Urban Institute
500 L'Enfant Plaza SW
Washington, DC 20024

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Social Security has evolved to become an integral part of the economic security of African American families, but this was not always the case. At its inception, Social Security did not cover domestic or agricultural work, in addition to other occupations, in which two-thirds of African Americans were employed. Changes to the program over subsequent decades have made it nearly universal. But racial and gender discrimination persists in the labor market and results in higher levels of unemployment, occupational segregation, and lower wages for African Americans, especially African American women. These structural barriers preclude many African American workers from jobs with pension coverage and sufficient income to save for retirement. And these labor market disparities result in Social Security benefit levels that leave a disproportionate share of African Americans in poverty.
The Urban Institute and the Center on Budget and Public Policy Priorities will release a brief that addresses these issues, and invite you to an event where participants will discuss the following:

• Social Security’s history and the reasons domestic and farm workers initially were not covered
• structural barriers that affect the employment and health outcomes of African American workers and result in greater use of disability and survivors insurance and lower Social Security benefits, despite the program’s progressive benefit formula
• proposals to reform Social Security and their projected effects on African American families’ economic well-being

REGISTER HERE

Registration is required to attend the event.

Speakers:

• Nancy Altman, President, Social Security Works
• Kilolo Kijakazi, Institute Fellow, Urban Institute
• Maya Rockeymore Cummings, President, Global Policy Solutions
• Margery Turner, Senior Vice President for Program Planning and Management, Urban Institute
• Sarah Rosen Wartell, President, Urban Institute
• Kathleen Romig, Senior Policy Analyst, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (moderator)

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Upcoming webinar: “Spending Patterns of Older Households and Their Financial Planning Implications”

Please join EBRI for a webinar reviewing findings from its latest research on spending behavior of older Americans. EBRI researcher Zahra Ebrahimi will examine how spending varies by retirement status, wealth, and demographic characteristics. We will then hear from Sharon Carson, Retirement Strategist, Executive Director at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, to understand the implications of these findings in assessing retirement income adequacy for financial planning purposes.

Details

• Date: July 24, 2019
• Time: 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time

If you are interested in sponsoring this webinar or a series of webinars, please contact Betsy Jaffe.

Register Today!

Mark Your Calendar

Zahra Ebrahimi, Research Associate, EBRI

Sharon Carson, Executive Director, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Retirement Team

Moderated by: Lori Lucas, CFA, President and CEO, EBRI

Register Today!

Only EBRI brings together unique and unbiased research, industry thought leaders and all segments of the employee benefits industry to provide unparalleled programming.

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