Labor supply effects of the recent social security benefit cuts: Empirical estimates using cohort discontinuities

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Mastrobuoni, Giovanni
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2009.07.009
• 发表日期: 2009
• 页码: 1224-1233
• 关键词: Normal retirement age; Retirement behavior; Social Security reform

摘要

In response to a crisis in Social Security financing two decades ago Congress implemented an increase in the Normal Retirement Age (NRA) of 2 months per year for cohorts born in 1938 and after. These cohorts began reaching retirement age in 2000. This paper studies the effects of these benefit cuts on recent retirement behavior. The evidence suggests that the mean retirement age of the affected cohorts has increased by about half as much as the increase in the NRA. If older workers continue to increase their labor supply in the same way, there might be important implications for the estimates of Social Security trust fund exhaustion that have played such a major role in recent discussions of Social Security reform. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.