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Stylized Facts and Incentive Effects Related to Claiming of Retirement Benefits Based on Social Security Administration Data
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Stylized Facts and Incentive Effects Related to Claiming of Retirement Benefits Based on Social Security Administration Data

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  • Wojciech Kopczuk

    (Columbia University)

  • Jae Song

    (Social Security Administration)

Abstract

We rely on the Master Beneficiary File to document a number of facts regarding claiming of Social Security benefits and quality of date of birth data in administrative files. We then assess the impact of changes in retirement incentives that have taken place since 2000 on claiming. We find evidence of non-trivial misreporting or clerical errors in the dates of births that give rise to systematic patterns but nevertheless appear to be fairly random. We also confirm significant tendency to claim in January or on birthdays, but we find that these patterns are still sensitive to incentive effects. Relying on the discontinuity in the Early Entitlement Age that occurs for people born on the second day of any month, we find evidence that people do not have singlepeaked preferences over claiming age: relaxing the early retirement constraint leads to acceleration of retirement by some people for whom the constraint would not be otherwise binding. One possible explanation for this pattern is a preference for retiring at one's birthday. We take advantage of a change in the full retirement age and find that there remains unusually large (relative to other birthdays) number of people who claim around their 65th birthday, supporting the idea that Medicare eligibility has an impact on claiming retirement benefits. Finally, we confirm that elimination of the earnings test in 2000 for those above full retirement age accelerated retirements and find that it also led to a significant weakening of the January effect in that group, bolstering the idea that the January effect is sensitive to economic incentives.

Suggested Citation

  • Wojciech Kopczuk & Jae Song, 2008. "Stylized Facts and Incentive Effects Related to Claiming of Retirement Benefits Based on Social Security Administration Data," Working Papers wp200, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:mrr:papers:wp200
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Tomasz Jedynak, 2022. "Does the Formulation of the Decision Problem Affect Retirement?—Framing Effect and Planned Retirement Age," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-30, February.
    3. Frank van Erp & Niels Vermeer & Daniel van Vuuren, 2013. "Non-financial determinants of retirement," CPB Discussion Paper 243.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    4. Steven G. Allen & Robert L. Clark & Jennifer Maki & Melinda Sandler Morrill, 2013. "Golden Years or Financial Fears? Decision Making After Retirement Seminars," NBER Working Papers 19231, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Frank Erp & Niels Vermeer & Daniel Vuuren, 2014. "Non-financial Determinants of Retirement: A Literature Review," De Economist, Springer, vol. 162(2), pages 167-191, June.
    6. Frank van Erp & Niels Vermeer & Daniel van Vuuren, 2013. "Non-financial determinants of retirement," CPB Discussion Paper 243, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    7. Cribb, Jonathan & Emmerson, Carl & Tetlow, Gemma, 2016. "Signals matter? Large retirement responses to limited financial incentives," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 203-212.
    8. Buchholtz, Sonia & Gaska, Jan & Góra, Marek, 2018. "Pension Strategies of Workers in a Country Getting Old before Getting Rich," IZA Discussion Papers 11830, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Allan Puur & Lauri Leppik & Martin Klesment, 2015. "Changes in pension take-up and retirement in the context of increasing the pension age: the case of Estonia in the 2000s," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4), pages 497-516, December.

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