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Old-Age Poverty: Single Women & Widows & A Lack of Retirement Security

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Abstract

Rates of elder poverty among widows and single women are higher than among couples and men. Poverty among single women reflects low lifetime earnings and spotty pension coverage, whereas poverty among widows results from the exhaustion of financial resources. In both cases, women will benefit from the creation of Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs), a source of independent retirement income lasting a lifetime.

Suggested Citation

  • Teresa Ghilarducci & Martha Susana Jaimes & Anthony Webb, 2018. "Old-Age Poverty: Single Women & Widows & A Lack of Retirement Security," SCEPA policy note series. 2018-06, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    • Handle: RePEc:epa:cepapn:2018-06
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    File URL: https://www.economicpolicyresearch.org/images/docs/research/retirement_security/single-women-policy-note-final-2019.pdf
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    1. Melissa M. Favreault & C. Eugene Steuerle, 2007. "Social Security Spouse and Survivor Benefits for the Modern Family," Working Papers, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College wp2007-07, Center for Retirement Research, revised Feb 2007.
    2. Kathleen McGarry & Robert F. Schoeni, 2005. "Widow(er) Poverty and Out-of-Pocket Medical Expenditures Near the End of Life," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 60(3), pages 160-168.
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    Cited by:

    1. Wei Sun & Teresa Ghilarducci & Michael Papadopoulos & Anthony Webb, 2019. "The Impact of a Social Security Proposal for "Catch-Up" Contributions," SCEPA working paper series. 2019-03, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    2. Alicia H. Munnell & Geoffrey Sanzenbacher & Alice Zulkarnain, 2020. "What Factors Explain the Decline in Widowed Women’s Poverty?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(5), pages 1881-1902, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Retirement; Women; Widows; Poverty; Older workers; Earnings; Pensions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

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