3,135 research outputs found
Expected Bequests and Their Distribution
Based on a sample of actual bequests that is population-representative and on the subjective probability of bequests, we estimate the distribution of bequests that the older population will make. We find that the distribution is highly skewed, so that the typical baby-boom person will receive a very modest inheritance. This is partly due to the skewed distribution of wealth and partly due to the tendency of the wealthy to have fewer children. But it is also due to anticipated dissaving: we estimate that households in the age band 70-74 will bequeath just 39% of their wealth, consuming the rest before they die.
Anticipated and Actual Bequests
This paper uses data on anticipated bequests from two waves of the Health and Retirement Study and the Asset and Health Dynamics of the Oldest Old (AHEAD), and on actual bequests from AHEAD. Actual bequests were measured in exit interviews given by proxy respondents for 774 AHEAD respondents who died between waves 1 and 2. Because the exit interview is representative of the elderly population, the distribution of estate values is quite different from that obtained from estate records, which represent just a wealthy subset of the population. Anticipated bequests were measured by the subjective probability of leaving bequests. Between waves 1 and 2, increases in bequest probabilities were associated with increases in the subjective probability of surviving, increments in household wealth, and widowing while out-of-pocket medical expenses reduced the likelihood of a bequest. By comparing bequest probabilities with baseline wealth we were able to test a main prediction of the life-cycle model, that individuals will dissave at advanced old-age. The AHEAD respondents anticipate substantial dissaving before they die.
Enhancing the Quality of Data on Income: Recent Developments in Survey Methodology
In this paper, we evaluate two survey innovations aimed at improving income measurement. These innovations are (1) integrating the question sequences for income and wealth which may elicit more accurate estimates of income from capital than has been true in the past, and (2) changes in the periodicity over which income flows are measured, which may provide a closer match between what the survey respondent knows best and the periodicity contained in survey measurement. These innovations have been introduced into both the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the study of Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (AHEAD). Based on the results reported in this paper, the potential return in quality of income measurement from these innovations is substantial.
The Effects of Subjective Survival on Retirement and Social Security Claiming
This research examines the relationship between mortality risk and retirement, and mortality risk and the propensity to take early and reduced Social Security benefits. The main theory for understanding saving behavior is the life-cycle model (LCH). The LCH, however, can be extended to find the optimal retirement age, and can be used to make predictions about the desire to annuitize or equivalently, the desire to delay claiming Social Security benefits. According to the LCH, individuals who expect to be exceptionally long-lived will retire at a later age than individuals who expect to die early because they will need greater wealth to finance more years of retirement. According to almost any model of intertemporal maximization, those who expect to be long lived will see the increase in Social Security benefits that result from retiring at 65 rather than at 62 as being financially advantageous and will, therefore, delay application for benefits until the age of 65. In principle the decision to retire and the decision to take early and reduced benefits are related decisions but not necessarily the same decision. Therefore this study examines both decisions.
The Effects of Subjective Survival on Retirement and Social Security Claiming
According to the life-cycle model, mortality risk will influence both retirement and the desire to annuitize wealth. We estimate the effect of subjective survival probabilities on retirement and on the claiming of Social Security benefits because delayed claiming is equivalent to the purchase of additional Social Security annuities. We find that those with very low subjective probabilities of survival retire earlier and claim earlier than those with higher subjective probabilities, but the effects are not large. The great majority of workers claim as soon as they are eligible.
A hidden constant in the anomalous Hall effect of a high-purity magnet MnSi
Measurements of the Hall conductivity in MnSi can provide incisive tests of
theories of the anomalous Hall (AH) effect, because both the mean-free-path and
magnetoresistance (MR) are unusually large for a ferromagnet. The large MR
provides an accurate way to separate the AH conductivity from
the ordinary Hall conductivity . Below the Curie temperature
, is linearly proportional to (magnetization) with a
proportionality constant that is independent of both and . In
particular, remains a constant while changes by a factor
of 100 between 5 K and . We discuss implications of the hidden constancy
in .Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Minor change
Intrinsic vs. extrinsic anomalous Hall effect in ferromagnets
A unified theory of the anomalous Hall effect (AHE) is presented for
multi-band ferromagnetic metallic systems with dilute impurities. In the clean
limit, the AHE is mostly due to the extrinsic skew-scattering. When the Fermi
level is located around anti-crossing of band dispersions split by spin-orbit
interaction, the intrinsic AHE to be calculated ab initio is resonantly
enhanced by its non-perturbative nature, revealing the extrinsic-to-intrinsic
crossover which occurs when the relaxation rate is comparable to the spin-orbit
interaction energy.Comment: 5 pages including 4 figures, RevTex; minor changes, to appaer in
Phys. Rev. Let
Unconventional Hall effect in oriented CaCoO thin films
Transport properties of the good thermoelectric misfit oxide
CaCoO are examined. In-plane resistivity and Hall resistance
measurements were made on epitaxial thin films which were grown on {\it c}-cut
sapphire substrates using the pulsed laser deposition technique. Interpretation
of the in-plane transport experiments relates the substrate-induced strain in
the resulting film to single crystals under very high pressure ( 5.5 GPa)
consistent with a key role of strong electronic correlation. They are confirmed
by the measured high temperature maxima in both resistivity and Hall
resistance. While hole-like charge carriers are inferred from the Hall effect
measurements over the whole investigated temperature range, the Hall resistance
reveals a non monotonic behavior at low temperatures that could be interpreted
with an anomalous contribution. The resulting unconventional temperature
dependence of the Hall resistance seems thus to combine high temperature
strongly correlated features above 340 K and anomalous Hall effect at low
temperature, below 100 K.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review B (2005
Anomalous Fermi Liquid Behavior of Overdoped High-Tc Superconductors
According to a generic temperature vs. carrier-doping (T-p) phase diagram of
high-temperature superconductors it has been proposed that as doping increases
to the overdoped region they approach gradually a conventional (canonical)
Fermi Liquid. However, Hall effect measurements in several systems reported by
different authors show a still strong \emph{T}-dependence in overdoped samples.
We report here electrical transport measurements of
Y_{1-x}Ca_{x}Ba_{2}Cu_{3}O_{7-delta} thin films presenting a temperature
dependence of the Hall constant, R_H, which does not present a gradual
transition towards the T-independent behavior of a canonical Fermi Liquid.
Instead, the T-dependence passes by a minimum near optimal doping and then
increases again in the overdoped region. We discuss the theoretical predictions
from two representative Fermi Liquid models and show that they can not give a
satisfactory explanation to our data. We conclude that this region of the phase
diagram in YBCO, as in most HTSC, is not a canonical Fermi Liquid, therefore we
call it Anomalous Fermi Liquid.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.
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