IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/1360.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Concepts and Measures of Earnings Replacement During Retirement

Author

Listed:
  • Michael J. Boskin
  • John B. Shoven

Abstract

This paper compares the well-being of the Retirement History Survey of the elderly with their own previous levels of income and economic welfare. Traditional replacement rates are calculated, although a number of shortcomings of such measures are discussed. Modifications are made by examining career average rather than peak earnings, by adjusting for the fact that the incomes of the elderly are taxed more lightly, that the elderly do not have dependent children, and that Social Security income in retirement is a safer source ofincome than earnings earlier in life. The fully adjusted total income measures are at least as high for almost all classes of households in the survey as their career average pre-retirement earnings.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael J. Boskin & John B. Shoven, 1984. "Concepts and Measures of Earnings Replacement During Retirement," NBER Working Papers 1360, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:1360
    Note: PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w1360.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Victor R. Fuchs, 2018. "“Though Much Is Taken”: Reflections on Aging, Health, and Medical Care," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Health Economics and Policy Selected Writings by Victor Fuchs, chapter 33, pages 403-424, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Kotlikoff, Laurence J & Spivak, Avia & Summers, Lawrence H, 1982. "The Adequacy of Savings," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(5), pages 1056-1069, December.
    3. Michael J. Boskin & Michael D. Hurd, 1982. "Are Inflation Rates Different for the Elderly?," NBER Working Papers 0943, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Michael D. Hurd & John B. Shoven, 1983. "The Economic Status of the Elderly," NBER Chapters, in: Financial Aspects of the United States Pension System, pages 359-398, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Alan S. Blinder & Roger H. Gordon & Donald E. Wise, 1980. "Reconsidering the Work Disincentive Effects of Social Security," NBER Working Papers 0562, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Flood, Lennart & Klevmarken, Anders & Mitrut, Andreea, 2006. "The income of the Swedish baby boomers," Working Papers in Economics 209, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    2. Kluth, Sebastian & Gasche, Martin, 2013. "Ersatzraten in der Gesetzlichen Rentenversicherung," MEA discussion paper series 201311, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    3. Michael D. Hurd & Susann Rohwedder, 2015. "Measuring Economic Preparation for Retirement: Income Versus Consumption," Working Papers wp332, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    4. Casey B. Mulligan & Xavier Sala-i-Martín, 2003. "Social security, retirement, and the single-mindedness of the electorate," Economics Working Papers 686, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    5. Michael J. Boskin, 1998. "Consumer Prices, the Consumer Price Index, and the Cost of Living," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 3-26, Winter.
    6. Christian Dudel & Julian Schmied, 2019. "Pension adequacy standards: an empirical estimation strategy and results for the United States and Germany," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2019-003, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    7. Engen, Eric M. & Gruber, Jonathan, 2001. "Unemployment insurance and precautionary saving," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 545-579, June.
    8. Michael J. Boskin & John B. Shoven, 1986. "Poverty Among the Elderly: Where are the Holes in the Safety Net?," NBER Working Papers 1923, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Casey B. Mulligan & Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 1999. "Gerontocracy, retirement, and social security," Economics Working Papers 383, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    10. Armando Barrientos, 2000. "Work, retirement and vulnerability of older persons in Latin America: what are the lessons for pension design?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(4), pages 495-506.
    11. Robert P. Inman, 1985. "The Funding Status of Teacher Pensions: An Econometric Approach," NBER Working Papers 1727, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Christian Dudel & Julian Schmied, 2023. "Pension benchmarks: empirical estimation and results for the United States and Germany," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(2), pages 171-188, June.

    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. Michael D. Hurd, 1989. "Issues and Results from Research on the Elderly I: Economic Status (Part I of III Parts)," NBER Working Papers 3018, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Stock, James H & Wise, David A, 1990. "Pensions, the Option Value of Work, and Retirement," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(5), pages 1151-1180, September.
    3. Michael J. Boskin & John B. Shoven, 1986. "Poverty Among the Elderly: Where are the Holes in the Safety Net?," NBER Working Papers 1923, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Tetsuji Yamada & Tadashi Yamada, 1987. "Social Security and Earlier Retirement in Japan: Cross-Sectional Evidence," NBER Working Papers 2442, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Hamermesh, Daniel S, 1984. "Consumption during Retirement: The Missing Link in the Life Cycle," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 66(1), pages 1-7, February.
    6. David T. Ellwood, 1985. "Pensions and the Labor Market: A Starting Point (The Mouse Can Roar)," NBER Chapters, in: Pensions, Labor, and Individual Choice, pages 19-54, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Mastrobuoni, Giovanni, 2011. "The role of information for retirement behavior: Evidence based on the stepwise introduction of the Social Security Statement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7-8), pages 913-925, August.
    8. Laurence J. Kotlikoff & David A. Wise, 1988. "Pension Backloading, Wage Taxes, and Work Disincentives," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy: Volume 2, pages 161-196, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Tajul Masron & Mduduzi Biyase & Talent Zwane & Thomas Udimal & Frederich Kirsten, 2023. "Ecological footprint and population health outcomes: an analysis of E7 countries," Economics Working Papers edwrg-07-2023, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, South Africa, revised 2023.
    10. Hiedemann, Bridget, 1998. "A Stackelberg model of Social Security acceptance decisions in dual career households," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 263-278, February.
    11. repec:eee:labchp:v:1:y:1986:i:c:p:305-355 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Gustman, Alan L & Steinmeier, Thomas L, 1986. "A Structural Retirement Model," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(3), pages 555-584, May.
    13. MOUNA BEN OTHMAN & Mohamed Ali MAROUANI, 2016. "Labor Market Effects of Pension Reform :an overlapping genenrations general equilibrium model applied to Tunisia," EcoMod2016 9294, EcoMod.
    14. Sheng-Cheng Hu, 1996. "Myopia and Social Security Financing," Public Finance Review, , vol. 24(3), pages 319-348, July.
    15. Postler Andreas, 2010. "Gesundheitspolitik – Grundrisse einer nachhaltigen und gerechten Finanzierung der Gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung / Health policy – outline for a sustainable and fair financing of Germany’s statutory," ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, De Gruyter, vol. 61(1), pages 267-286, January.
    16. Friedrich Breyer & Normann Lorenz & Thomas Niebel, 2015. "Health care expenditures and longevity: is there a Eubie Blake effect?," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 16(1), pages 95-112, January.
    17. Leora Friedberg, 2000. "The Labor Supply Effects of the Social Security Earnings Test," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(1), pages 48-63, February.
    18. Gary S. Fields & Olivia S. Mitchell, 1984. "Economic Determinants of the Optimal Retirement Age: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 19(2), pages 245-262.
    19. Krueger, Alan B & Pischke, Jorn-Steffen, 1992. "The Effect of Social Security on Labor Supply: A Cohort Analysis of the Notch Generation," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(4), pages 412-437, October.
    20. Camacho, Carmen & Harmankaya, Fatih & Sağlam, Çağrı, 2020. "Social status pursuit, distribution of bequests and inequality," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 183-191.
    21. Michael D. Hurd & Michael J. Boskin, 1984. "The Effect of Social Security on Retirement in the Early 1970s," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 99(4), pages 767-790.

    More about this item

    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:nbr:nberwo:1360. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.