Does Autoenrollment Affect Employer Contributions?

Summarizes research on how automatically enrolling employees in 401(k) plans in order to raise participation rates increases costs for employers and affects their matching contribution rates and, in turn, the retirement security of eligible employees

What the 2008 Stock Market Crash Means for Retirement Security

Compares future retirement resources before and after the stock market decline, by gender, marital status, race/ethnicity, education, and retirement income quintile, under three scenarios: no recovery, full recovery, and partial recovery in ten years

The Potential Impact of the Great Recession on Future Retirement Incomes

Estimates the effects of job loss, slower wage growth, and withdrawals from retirement savings during the 2007-09 recession on retirement incomes at age 70, including decline in income by age group and number of those likely to live in poverty at 70

"Working for a Good Retirement"

The choice of retirement age is the most important portfolio choice most workers will make. Drawing on the Urban Institute's Dynamic Simulation of Income model (DYNASIM3), this report examines how delaying retirement for nondisabled workers would affect individual retiree benefits, the solvency of the Social Security trust fund, and general revenues. The results suggest that delaying retirement by itself does not generate enough additional revenue to make Social Security solvent by 2045. Benefit cuts or supplementary funding sources will be necessary to achieve solvency. However, the size of the benefit cuts or tax increases could be minimized if individuals worked longer. This additional work also substantially increases worker's retirement well-being. Lower-income workers, to the extent they can work longer, have the most to gain from their additional labor. Policy changes that encourage work at older ages will substantially improve both economic and personal well-being in the future.

Children's Savings Accounts: Why Design Matters

Estimates how specific features of CSAs -- supplemental grants, federal matches, private contributions, and nontaxability -- would affect the impact of CSAs on wealth distribution. Analyzes data by mother's race/ethnicity, income, and education

Retail Food Access and Obesity Prevalence: Mapping Variation across the United States

Obesity has increased rapidly during the last few decades and is a significant risk factor for many chronic diseases, often resulting in higher rates of morbidity and mortality. The role of eating behaviors and individual food choices, as well as the growing array of clinical tools to reduce obesity at the individual level, has received extensive attention as public health researchers seek to understand why the rate of obesity in the US has escalated so rapidly in a relatively short period. But the focus on individual actions and tailored clinical management can obscure how the larger environment shapes the available choices and opportunities, particularly for those in communities where obesity is common. A central feature of that environment is the quality of food access.We explore how access to different types of retail food stores—which may in turn shape the foods that consumers choose—varies widely across the US, with particular attention to areas with higher rates of obesity.

The economics of the family from a dynamic perspective

My dissertation considers, within a dynamic framework, how actual or predicted changes in individuals\u27 family circumstances influence their behavior and economic well-being. First, I examine the impact that changes in neighborhood quality have on the probability of moving after 1970 for younger and older homeowners in the United States. I use multiperiod data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) linked to neighborhood level variables from Census data and find that a decrease in neighborhood quality increases the probability of moving for younger homeowners, but has no significant impact on the probability of moving for older homeowners. Second, I compare and contrast the short-term and long-term economic consequences of marital separation on men and women in the United States and Germany. For these analyses I use both the PSID and the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). The findings suggest that women in both the United States and Germany sustain large declines in their household-size adjusted income after divorce, while men in these countries experience only small declines or even increases in their household-size adjusted income. However, group averages mask the great diversity in economic well-being changes after divorce. The short- and long-term economic consequences of divorce vary by education, employment, number of children, income level, remarriage, and cohabitation for both men and women. Third, I consider the extent to which married women in the United States and Germany anticipate divorce and increase their labor supply in response. I use longitudinal data from the PSID and the GSOEP and find, as do other researchers, that the probability of divorce had a significant and positive impact on labor supply decisions for U.S. married women in the 1970s. However, I find this is no longer the case for U.S. married women in the 1980s. I do find that the probability of divorce positively and significantly influences labor force participation decisions for German married women in the 1980s; however, the results suggest that it does not influence hours decisions