IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mrr/papers/wp449.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Knowledge about Social Security Programs

Author

Listed:
  • David Knapp

    (University of Southern California)

  • Francisco Perez-Arce

    (University of Southern California)

Abstract

Imperfect knowledge of public programs influences use and can lead to suboptimal decisions. We quantify significant disparities in Social Security program knowledge across race and ethnic groups. Differences in knowledge are not explained by differences in income, wealth, employment history, or educational achievement. We find evidence that there are racial/ethnic differences between perceived and actual knowledge of Social Security programs as well as differences in financial literacy, an important component of retirement planning. To identify mechanisms for alleviating these disparities, we investigate how knowledge relates to information sources about Social Security across race and ethnic groups. We find that Black and Hispanic respondents, on average, have fewer information sources. This gap corresponds to a difference in the ability to collect information from friends and family. Additional sources of information predict knowledge scores, even after accounting for confounders. The impact of racial and ethnic disparities in Social Security knowledge on post-claiming outcomes remains unclear. We present some suggestive evidence from retirement beneficiaries of a relationship between knowledge differences and subjective perceptions about the benefit claiming decision. Understanding causal mechanisms connecting racial and ethnic disparities in knowledge and outcomes likely requires an experimental design.

Suggested Citation

  • David Knapp & Francisco Perez-Arce, 2022. "Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Knowledge about Social Security Programs," Working Papers wp449, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
  • Handle: RePEc:mrr:papers:wp449
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mrdrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/papers/pdf/wp449.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Saurabh Bhargava & Dayanand Manoli, 2015. "Psychological Frictions and the Incomplete Take-Up of Social Benefits: Evidence from an IRS Field Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(11), pages 3489-3529, November.
    2. Perez-Arce, Francisco & Rabinovich, Lila & Samek, Anya & Yoong, Joanne, 2021. "The effect of informational prompts about survivor benefits for spouses on Social Security claim intentions," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(4), pages 504-515, October.
    3. Robert Jensen, 2010. "The (Perceived) Returns to Education and the Demand for Schooling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(2), pages 515-548.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andreas R. Kostøl & Andreas S. Myhre, 2021. "Labor Supply Responses to Learning the Tax and Benefit Schedule," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(11), pages 3733-3766, November.
    2. Kenneth T. Gillingham & Sébastien Houde & Arthur A. van Benthem, 2021. "Consumer Myopia in Vehicle Purchases: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 207-238, August.
    3. Bergman, Peter & Denning, Jeffrey T. & Manoli, Dayanand, 2017. "Broken Tax Breaks? Evidence from a Tax Credit Information Experiment with 1,000,000 Students," IZA Discussion Papers 10997, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Hunt Allcott & Daniel Cohen & William Morrison & Dmitry Taubinsky, 2022. "When do "Nudges" Increase Welfare?," NBER Working Papers 30740, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Lucas Coffman & Clayton R. Featherstone & Judd B. Kessler, 2024. "A Model of Information Nudges," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 1077, Boston College Department of Economics.
    6. Naihobe Gonzalez, "undated". "How Learning About One's Ability Affects Educational Investments: Evidence from the Advanced Placement Program," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 307d565f1bf14eb8808071847, Mathematica Policy Research.
    7. Lucas C. Coffman & Clayton R. Featherstone & Judd B. Kessler, 2017. "Can Social Information Affect What Job You Choose and Keep?," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 96-117, January.
    8. Sarah Cohodes & Sean Corcoran & Jennifer Jennings & Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj, 2022. "When Do Informational Interventions Work? Experimental Evidence from New York City High School Choice," NBER Working Papers 29690, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Altmann, Steffen & Cairo, Sofie & Mahlstedt, Robert & Sebald, Alexander, 2022. "Do Job Seekers Understand the UI Benefit System (And Does It Matter)?," IZA Discussion Papers 15747, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Francisco Perez-Arce & Lila Rabinovich, 2022. "The Impacts of the Social Security Statement Redesign on People’s Knowledge and Behavioral Intentions: A Survey Experiment," Working Papers wp450, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    11. Pugatch, Todd & Wilson, Nicholas, 2018. "Nudging study habits: A field experiment on peer tutoring in higher education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 151-161.
    12. Elizabeth M. Caucutt & Lance Lochner & Youngmin Park, 2017. "Correlation, Consumption, Confusion, or Constraints: Why Do Poor Children Perform so Poorly?," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 119(1), pages 102-147, January.
    13. Tahir Andrabi & Jishnu Das & Asim Ijaz Khwaja, 2017. "Report Cards: The Impact of Providing School and Child Test Scores on Educational Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(6), pages 1535-1563, June.
    14. Battaglia, Marianna & Lebedinski, Lara, 2015. "Equal Access to Education: An Evaluation of the Roma Teaching Assistant Program in Serbia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 62-81.
    15. Ralph Stinebrickner & Todd R. Stinebrickner, 2014. "A Major in Science? Initial Beliefs and Final Outcomes for College Major and Dropout," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 81(1), pages 426-472.
    16. David E. Altig & Elias Ilin & Alexander Ruder & Ellyn Terry, 2020. "Benefits Cliffs and the Financial Incentives for Career Advancement: A Case Study of the Health Care Services Career Pathway," FRB Atlanta Community and Economic Development Discussion Paper 2020-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    17. Felipe Arteaga & Adam J Kapor & Christopher A Neilson & Seth D Zimmerman, 2022. "Smart Matching Platforms and Heterogeneous Beliefs in Centralized School Choice," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 137(3), pages 1791-1848.
    18. Falch, Ranveig, 2021. "How Do People Trade Off Resources Between Quick and Slow Learners?," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 5/2021, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    19. Cain Polidano & Justin van de Ven & Sarah Voitchovsky, 2017. "The Power of Self-Interest: Effects of Education and Training Entitlements in Later-Life," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2017n12, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    20. Tatiana Homonoff & Jason Somerville, 2021. "Program Recertification Costs: Evidence from SNAP," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 271-298, November.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mrr:papers:wp449. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MRRC Administrator (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/isumius.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.