scholarly journals Recessions, Retirement, and Social Security

2011 ◽  
Vol 101 (3) ◽  
pp. 23-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney C Coile ◽  
Phillip B Levine

This paper examines how labor market fluctuations around the time of retirement affect the labor force status and Social Security receipt of individuals ages 55 to 69 and the income of retirees in their 70s, using data from the March Current Population Survey, Census, and American Community Surveys. We find that workers are more likely to leave the labor force, to collect Social Security earlier, and to have lower Social Security income when they face a recession near retirement. The impact is greatest for the less-educated, who are more susceptible to job loss and rely more heavily on Social Security.

ILR Review ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Card

Using data from the Current Population Survey, this paper describes the effect of the Mariel Boatlift of 1980 on the Miami labor market. The Mariel immigrants increased the Miami labor force by 7%, and the percentage increase in labor supply to less-skilled occupations and industries was even greater because most of the immigrants were relatively unskilled. Nevertheless, the Mariel influx appears to have had virtually no effect on the wages or unemployment rates of less-skilled workers, even among Cubans who had immigrated earlier. The author suggests that the ability of Miami's labor market to rapidly absorb the Mariel immigrants was largely owing to its adjustment to other large waves of immigrants in the two decades before the Mariel Boatlift.


ILR Review ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 792-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Funkhouser ◽  
Stephen J. Trejo

Using data from special supplements to the Current Population Survey (CPS), the authors track the education and hourly earnings of recent male immigrants to the United States. In terms of these measures of labor market skills, the CPS data suggest that immigrants who came in the late 1980s were more skilled than those who arrived earlier in the decade. This pattern represents a break from the steady decline in immigrant skill levels observed in 1940–80 Census data. Despite the encouraging trend over the 1980s, however, the average skills of recent immigrants remain low by historical standards.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-202
Author(s):  
Brett O’Hara ◽  
Carla Medalia ◽  
Jerry J. Maples

Abstract Most research on health insurance in the United States uses the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement. However, a recent redesign of the health insurance questions disrupted the historical time trend in 2013. Using data from the American Community Survey, which has a parallel trend in the uninsured rate, we model a bridge estimate of the uninsured rate using the traditional questions. Also, we estimate the effect of changing the questionnaire. We show that the impact of redesigning the survey varies substantially by subgroup. This approach can be used to produce bridge estimates when other questionnaires are redesigned.


ILR Review ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 818-857 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Clemens ◽  
Jennifer Hunt

Studies have reached conflicting conclusions regarding the labor market effects of exogenous refugee waves such as the Mariel Boatlift in Miami. The authors show that contradictory findings on the effects of the Mariel Boatlift can be explained by a large difference in the pre- and post-Boatlift racial composition in certain very small subsamples of workers in the Current Population Survey. This compositional change is specific to Miami and unrelated to the Boatlift. They also show that conflicting findings on the labor market effects of other important refugee waves are caused by spurious correlation in some analyses between the instrument and the endogenous variable, introduced by applying a common divisor to both. As a whole, the evidence from refugee waves reinforces the existing consensus that the impact of immigration on average native-born workers is small, and it fails to substantiate claims of large detrimental effects on workers with less than a high school education.


2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ajin Lee

This article argues that wealth uncertainty influences when couples choose to retire. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, I show that wives delay retirement when their husbands retire following a job loss. This effect is stronger when husbands are the primary earners, and couples are relatively poorer. This provides evidence of intra-household insurance that mitigates the impact of an unexpected earnings shock. I find that wives tend to delay retirement only until they become eligible for social security. This suggests that social security benefits can relax households’ budget constraints and allow wives to join their husbands in retirement.


2008 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Warren Warren ◽  
Eric Grodsky ◽  
Jennifer C. Lee

Since the late 1970s, an increasing number of states have required students to pass statewide high school exit examinations (HSEEs) in order to graduate. States have usually adopted HSEEs in response to the perception that a substantial number of graduates lack skills that are required for success in the modern economy. What do these educational reforms mean for students' postsecondary economic and labor market prospects? The central hypothesis of the study presented here was that state HSEE policies have the effect of widening gaps in labor force status and earnings between young people who have high school diplomas and those who do not. To test this hypothesis, the authors modeled the association between state HSEE policies and these labor market outcomes using data from the 1980–2000 U.S. censuses and the 1984–2002 Outgoing Rotation Groups of the Current Population Survey. The results revealed no evidence that state HSEEs positively affect labor force status or earnings or that the connections between state HSEE policies and these outcomes vary by students' race/ethnicity or the level of difficulty of state HSEEs.


Author(s):  
Roberto B. Pinheiro ◽  
Alan Dizioli

This Commentary discusses how the presence of foreign-born workers in a local labor market affects the decisions of native-born workers to leave the labor force or move to another state. We analyze short panels obtained through the Current Population Survey and find that, in the short run, less-educated native-born workers react to a larger stock of foreign-born workers by either moving to a different state or dropping out of the labor force. In terms of magnitude, the effect is small but not insignificant.


ILR Review ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-169
Author(s):  
Christopher Ferrall

This study, using data from the Professional, Administrative, Technical, and Clerical Pay Survey and the Current Population Survey, examines how the assignment of responsibility within firms affected the structure of wages of U.S. engineers between 1961 and 1986. Patterns of wage dispersion in this sample mirrored patterns found in broader segments of the labor market during the same period. In engineering, wage dispersion within levels of responsibility fell steadily between 1976 and 1986, while wage dispersion between levels rose. At the same time, engineering jobs began to migrate to lower levels within firms. The author explains the trends in wages and job assignments as responses to changes in the supply of and demand for engineers, within the framework of hierarchy models of responsibility.


2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (6-7) ◽  
pp. 973-994
Author(s):  
Amanda Sheely

This article investigates the potentially cumulative effects of being arrested, convicted, and incarcerated on labor market outcomes among women, as well as whether decreased employment levels are due to labor market exclusion or detachment. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, I find that arrested women have reduced levels of employment, due to both labor market exclusion (unemployment) and labor market detachment (not in the labor force). Once the effect of being arrested is taken into account, women who are convicted or incarcerated do not face any additional negative employment consequences. These results demonstrate that policymakers must look beyond incarceration to reduce the impact of criminal justice involvement on women.


ILR Review ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 955-980 ◽  
Author(s):  
William E. Even ◽  
David A. Macpherson

This study tests whether the employer mandate under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) increased involuntary part-time (IPT) employment. Using data from the Current Population Survey between 1994 and 2015, the authors find that IPT employment in 2015 exceeded predictions based on economic conditions and the structure of the labor market. Of greater importance, using difference-in-difference methods, they find that the increase in the probability of IPT employment since passage of the ACA was greater in occupations with a larger share of workers affected by the mandate. The authors’ estimates suggest that approximately 700,000 additional workers without a college degree are in IPT employment as a result of the ACA employer mandate.


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