Social Stratification and Choice-Based Policy Programs: The Case of Early Withdrawal of Retirement Savings during the Great Recession

Social Forces ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary D Kline ◽  
Jeremy Pais
Keyword(s):  
Great Recession ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
The United States ◽  
Retirement Savings ◽  
Retirement Plans ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Early Withdrawal ◽  
Retirement System

Abstract Access to emergency funds during times of need is increasingly dependent on a “choice-based” retirement system in the United States. This study examines the operation of this choice-based retirement system across a socioeconomically stratified population impacted by the Great Recession. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics collected between 2005 and 2011, we first assess how socioeconomic status shapes access to different types of retirement plans. We then examine the varied pathways that lead to the early withdrawal of retirement savings. The results depict a multistage selection process through which socioeconomic resources structure the process of withdrawal. This occurs first through the availability of retirement funds and the makeup of the retirement portfolio and then through the likelihood of hardship. The results also reveal the importance of education in getting access to retirement savings during a hardship. The general implications for choice-based programs are discussed.

scholarly journals The PSID and Income Volatility: Its Record of Seminal Research and Some New Findings

2018 ◽  
Vol 680 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Moffitt ◽  
Sisi Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Great Recession ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
The United States ◽  
Income Dynamics ◽  
Income Volatility ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Stable Period ◽  
Transitory Shocks ◽  
New Findings ◽  
Three Phase

The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) has made more contributions to the study of income volatility than any other dataset in the United States. Its record of providing data for seminal research is unmatched. In this article, we first present the reasons that the PSID has made such major contributions to research on the topic. Then we review the major papers that have used the PSID to study income volatility, comparing their results to those using other datasets. Last, we present new results for income volatility among U.S. men through 2014, finding that both gross volatility and the variance of transitory shocks display a three-phase trend: upward trends from the 1970s to the 1980s, a stable period in the 1990s through the early 2000s, and a large increase during the Great Recession.

PUSH-PULL THEORY IN BLACK AND WHITE: EXAMINING RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN FIRM STARTUPS BEFORE AND AFTER THE GREAT RECESSION

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (03) ◽  
Author(s):  
RACHEL MB ATKINS
Keyword(s):  
Racial Differences ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black And White ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Black Entrepreneurs ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Starting A Business

Although Blacks in the United States suffered disproportionately high unemployment, housing and wealth losses during the Great Recession, little is known about the recession’s impact on Black entrepreneurship. This study uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to estimate the difference in probability of starting a business before and after the recession for Black and White households. While the likelihood of starting a business declined for Whites after the Great Recession there were no statistically significant changes in the rate of firm startups among Blacks. Evidence supports the prosperity pull hypothesis for White but not Black entrepreneurs.

Disruptive Soft Law and Post-Crisis US Reform

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abraham L. Newman ◽  
Elliot Posner
Keyword(s):  
Financial Markets ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Regulatory Reform ◽  
The United States ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
The Us ◽  
International Interaction

Chapter 6 examines the long-term effects of international soft law on policy in the United States since 2008. The extent and type of post-crisis US cooperation with foreign jurisdictions have varied considerably with far-reaching ramifications for international financial markets. Focusing on the international interaction of reforms in banking and derivatives, the chapter uses the book’s approach to understand US regulation in the wake of the Great Recession. The authors attribute seemingly random variation in the US relationship to foreign regulation and markets to differences in pre-crisis international soft law. Here, the existence (or absence) of robust soft law and standard-creating institutions determines the resources available to policy entrepreneurs as well as their orientation and attitudes toward international cooperation. Soft law plays a central role in the evolution of US regulatory reform and its interface with the rest of the world.

scholarly journals Measuring the availability of “good jobs” in the United States for working-class men during the Great Recession and recovery

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janette Dill ◽  
Robert Francis
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Food Service ◽  
The United States ◽  
Job Quality ◽  
Full Time ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Predicted Probability ◽  
Time Work ◽  
The Impact

In this study, we use the 2004, 2008, and 2014 panels of the Survey for Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to measure the impact of the Great Recession and recovery on the availability of “good jobs” for men without a college degree. We define “good jobs” using a cluster of job quality measures, including wage thresholds of at least $15, $20, or $25 per hour, employer-based health insurance, full-time work hours, and protection from layoff. We find that the Great Recession and aftermath (2008-2015) resulted in a 1-10% reduced probability of being in a “good job” across most industries, with especially large losses in manufacturing, retail, transportation, and food service (compared to 2004-2007). In the 2014 panel, there is only a slight post-recession recovery in the predicted probability of being in a “good job,” and the probability of being in a “good job” remains well below 2004 levels. Although the probability of being on layoff from a “good jobs” does decrease substantially in the 2014 cohort as compared to the rate of layoff during the Great Recession, our clustered measure of job quality shows that access to “good jobs” remains limited for most working-class men and that the recovery from the Recession has largely not reached the working-class.

scholarly journals What Employers Want from Interns: Demand-Side Trends in the Internship Market

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie Shandra
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Career Transition ◽  
The United States ◽  
Demand Side ◽  
Entry Level ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Education Experience ◽  
College Career ◽  
Skill Requirements

Internships have become a ubiquitous component of the college-career transition, yet empirical evidence of the internship market is limited. This study uses data from 1.3 million internship postings collected between 2007-2016 in the United States to (1) identify trends in internship education, experience, and skill requirements over the Great Recession and recovery periods; (2) evaluate how these trends correspond to those observed in the traditional labor market; and (3) assess robustness across labor market sectors. Results indicate that internship education and skill requirements increased substantially throughout the recession and recovery periods, indicative of a longer-term structural shift in employer expectations about internship hiring. Additionally, growth in internship education and skill requirements largely outpaced growth in non-internship education and skill requirements over the same period, suggesting potential substitution of non-interns with interns. Post-recession employers still consider internships to be entry-level positions—yet now expect interns to have skills in hand.

scholarly journals The Differential Incidence and Severity of Food Insecurity by Racial, Ethnic, and Immigrant Groups over the Great Recession in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 108 ◽  
pp. 379-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfonso Flores-Lagunes ◽  
Hugo B. Jales ◽  
Judith Liu ◽  
Norbert L. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Decomposition Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Immigrant Status ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Extensive And Intensive Margins ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Racial Ethnic

We document the differences in food insecurity incidence and severity by race/ethnicity and immigrant status over the Great Recession. We show that the disadvantaged groups with a higher incidence of food insecurity do not necessarily have a higher severity of food insecurity, which underscores the importance of examining both the extensive and intensive margins of food insecurity. Our decomposition analysis indicates that the contribution of compositional and structural factors to the observed differences in exposure to food insecurity is heterogeneous across these groups and over the Great Recession. Finally, SNAP does not seem to fundamentally change the patterns documented.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document