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Welfare for the elderly: the effects of SSI on pre-retirement labor supply

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  • Neumark, David
  • Powers, Elizabeth

Abstract

The elderly are one of the exceptional groups in American society with access to a significant cash safety net, a means-tested program called Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Little attention has been paid to the pre-eligibility-age labor market disincentives created by such a program. In particular, asset and income limits might induce individuals nearing the eligibility age to work less. There is little if any hard evidence on such incentive effects. We exploit variation in states' supplementation of the federal SSI benefit to estimate the effects of the SSI program on pre-retirement labor supply, using data from the 1984, 1990, and 1991 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation. We find some evidence that generous SSI benefits reduce the pre-retirement labor supply (and earnings) of men who are likely to participate in SSI after retirement as they near the eligibility age, especially that of men who have reached the age of eligibility for early Social Security benefits, which may be used to offset their reduced labor income.
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  • Neumark, David & Powers, Elizabeth, 2000. "Welfare for the elderly: the effects of SSI on pre-retirement labor supply," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1-2), pages 51-80, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:78:y:2000:i:1-2:p:51-80
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    Cited by:

    1. Whelan, Stephen & Atalay, Kadir & Hayward, Richard Donald, 2018. "Asset portfolio retirement decisions: the role of the tax and transfer system," SocArXiv akj8w, Center for Open Science.
    2. David Neumark & Elizabeth T. Powers, 2005. "The Effects of Changes in State SSI Supplements on Preretirement Labor Supply," Public Finance Review, , vol. 33(1), pages 3-35, January.
    3. Cagri Seda Kumru & John Piggott, 2010. "Should Public Retirement Pensions Be Means-tested?," DEGIT Conference Papers c015_049, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    4. Richard L. Johnson, 2000. "The effect of old-age insurance on male retirement : evidence from historical cross-country data," Research Working Paper RWP 00-09, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
    5. Mark Duggan & Melissa S. Kearney & Stephanie Rennane, 2015. "The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Program," NBER Working Papers 21209, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Neumark, David & Powers, Elizabeth T., 2005. "SSI, Labor Supply, and Migration," IZA Discussion Papers 1820, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Bütler, Monika & Peijnenburg, Kim & Staubli, Stefan, 2017. "How much do means-tested benefits reduce the demand for annuities?," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(4), pages 419-449, October.
    8. Elizabeth T. Powers & David Neumark, 2003. "The Supplemental Security Income Program and Incentives to Claim Social Security Retirement Early: Empirical Evidence from Matched SIPP and Social Security Administrative Files," Working Papers wp036, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    9. C. Yiwei Zhang & Jeffrey Hemmeter & Judd B. Kessler & Robert D. Metcalfe & Robert Weathers, 2023. "Nudging Timely Wage Reporting: Field Experimental Evidence from the U.S. Supplemental Security Income Program," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(3), pages 1341-1353, March.
    10. Hardy Hulley & Rebecca Mckibbin & Andreas Pedersen & Susan Thorp, 2013. "Means-Tested Public Pensions, Portfolio Choice and Decumulation in Retirement," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 89(284), pages 31-51, March.
    11. Bruce D. Meyer & Derek Wu, 2018. "The Poverty Reduction of Social Security and Means-Tested Transfers," NBER Working Papers 24567, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. repec:mea:meawpa:12264 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Gasche, Martin & Lamla, Bettina, 2012. "Erwartete Altersarmut in Deutschland: Pessimismus und Fehleinschätzungen – Ergebnisse aus der SAVE-Studie," MEA discussion paper series 201213, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    14. Elizabeth Powers & David Neumark, 2001. "The Supplemental Security Income Program and Incentives to Take Up Social Security Early Retirement: Empirical Evidence from Matched SIPP and Social.," NBER Working Papers 8670, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Cormac O'Dea, 2018. "Insurance, Efficiency and the Design of Public Pensions," 2018 Meeting Papers 1037, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    16. Marchand, J. & Smeeding, T., 2016. "Poverty and Aging," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 905-950, Elsevier.
      • Marchand, Joseph & Smeeding, Timothy, 2016. "Poverty and Aging," Working Papers 2016-11, University of Alberta, Department of Economics, revised 20 Nov 2016.
    17. James Sefton & Justin Van De Ven & Martin Weale, 2008. "Means Testing Retirement Benefits: fostering equity or discouraging savings?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(528), pages 556-590, April.
    18. Meyer, Bruce D. & Sullivan, James X., 2004. "The effects of welfare and tax reform: the material well-being of single mothers in the 1980s and 1990s," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(7-8), pages 1387-1420, July.
    19. John Piggott & Renuka Sane, 2011. "The Impact on Residential Choice of the Family Home Exemption in Resource-Tested Transfer Programs," Working Papers 201112, ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR), Australian School of Business, University of New South Wales.
    20. Manasi Deshpande, 2016. "Does Welfare Inhibit Success? The Long-Term Effects of Removing Low-Income Youth from the Disability Rolls," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(11), pages 3300-3330, November.
    21. Burns, Marguerite & Dague, Laura, 2017. "The effect of expanding Medicaid eligibility on Supplemental Security Income program participation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 20-34.
    22. Italo López García & Andrés Otero, 2017. "The Effects of Means-tested, Noncontributory Pensions on Poverty and Well-being: Evidence from the Chilean Pension Reforms," Working Papers wp358, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    23. Mark Duggan & Melissa S. Kearney & Stephanie Rennane, 2015. "The Supplemental Security Income Program," NBER Chapters, in: Economics of Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States, Volume 2, pages 1-58, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    24. David Neumark & Elizabeth Powers, 2006. "Supplemental security income, labor supply, and migration," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 19(3), pages 447-479, July.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy

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