Delays in claiming social security benefits

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Coile, C; Diamond, P; Gruber, J; Jousten, A
• 署名单位: Wellesley College; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/S0047-2727(01)00129-3
• 发表日期: 2002
• 页码: 357-385
• 关键词: social security benefit; claiming behavior; utility maximization model; New Beneficiary Data System; cross-sectional predictions

摘要

This paper focuses on Social Security benefit claiming behavior, a take-up decision that has been ignored in the previous literature. Using financial calculations and simulations based on an expected utility maximization model, we show that delaying benefit claim for a period of time after retirement is optimal in a wide variety of cases and that gains from delay may be significant. We find that approximately 10% of men retiring before their 62nd birthday delay claiming for at least 1 year after eligibility. We estimate hazard and probit models using data from the New Beneficiary Data System to test four cross-sectional predictions. While the data suggest that too few men delay, we find that the pattern of delays by early retirees is generally consistent with the hypotheses generated by our theoretical model. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.