Social security reforms and poverty among older dual-earner couples

Existing retirement studies have, in the main, focused only on labor supply decisions of couples in which the husband has been the sole earner. This paper extends the focus of analysis to examine retirement among dual-earner couples. It further develops a framework for assessing how several past and prospective Social Security reforms might be expected to affect older working couples' retirement ages and retirement incomes. Two questions are addressed in some detail: (1) What are the likely effects of various changes in Social Security rules on the retirement decisions of older working women and their husbands? and (2) How might these changes alter the incidence of poverty among retired dual-earner couples? Empirical evidence from the United States suggests that many benefit reforms currently being discussed in policy circles will enhance Social Security system revenues, but will also worsen the economic status of an important segment of dual-earner couples.     

Happiness Among Adolescent Students in Thailand: Family and Non-Family Factors

This paper explores family and non-family factors contributing to happiness among students aged 15–18 in Thailand. Data come from the Social and Cultural Situation and Mental Health Survey (n = 905). Based on regression analysis, family factors are more important than non- family factors in explaining the variations in adolescents’ happiness. Regarding the family domain, those who reported sufficient time spent with family members and highest level of love and connectedness were happiest. Those living in a two-parent family were happiest, followed by those living with a married father or a married mother (in a single parent family). Those living in an unmarried mother family were unhappiest, controlling for household economic status. These findings highlight the important role of a father in a country with a matrilocal family system. Regarding non-family factors, adolescents with the highest school attendance, highest self-esteem, and highest economic status who also regularly participated in extracurricular activities were happiest. Adolescents who were older and who had to do chores regularly tended to be less happy than their peers.     

The impact of wives’ earnings on income inequality: Issues and estimates

We estimate the extent to which rising family income inequality can be explained by changes in the earnings of married women. We develop a decomposition equation that separates single persons from married couples (decomposition by population group) and, for married couples, distinguishes the impact of wives' earnings from other sources of income (decomposition by income source). Despite the rising correlation between husbands' and wives' earnings, changes in wives' earnings do not explain a substantial portion of the increase in family income inequality. Our results contradict those of some previous analyses. The inconsistency of recent estimates can be traced to the use of a variety of conceptually different approaches in the previous literature. We clarify these approaches by explicitly distinguishing the conceptual issues, analyzing the empirical components, and providing comprehensive estimates.     

Does It Matter How You Retire? Old-Age Retirement Routes and Subjective Economic Well-Being

Social Indicators Research - This study explores the association between retirement on an old-age pension and subjective economic well-being. The study starts by analyzing this association in...     

Women's Transitions in Retirement:

To facilitate insight into the choices and options each woman has for her retirement. the retirement olanner should guide each woman through a self ass~ssmenptr ocess. 'he first step invilves an examination of how she has cooed and made decisions during the other of life's transitions. This is 'followed by an assessment 07 the meaning work has for each individual: its social aspects, the slructure, and the issues of identity, prestige, and power. Continuing the process, the retirement planner helps women evaluate the changing relationships with friends and family. The married woman will assess her marriage in the framework of her need for privacy, independence and autonomy. Sample questions from self assessment scales are included.     

The influence of first generation fertility and economic status on second generation fertility

This paper examines the impact of parental economic status and family size on the actual and expected fertility of adult children using longitudinal data from two generations of families participating in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. There was a modest positive relationship between first generation family size and second generation fertility. More importantly, the ideal family size of the parental family was more closely related to fertility behavior and plans in the second generation than was actual parental family size. In addition, the data revealed the hypothesized negative correlation between parental financial status and second generation fertility behavior and plans. Several mechanisms which could produce the correlation between parental characteristics and the fertility of their children are explored.The analysis reported in this paper was supported by Contract NO1-HD-42856 from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, Center for Population Research. Dr. Thornton is affiliated with the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Requests for reprints should be directed to him.     

Assessing the effects of an early retirement program

We investigate induced retirement effects of the Norwegian early retirement program AFP and emphasize effects caused by relocations of some individuals from disability pension and unemployment to AFP. Theoretical considerations predict that AFP unambiguously induces more early retirement. Analyzing Norwegian register data 1994–96 with parametric and non-parametric methods, we demonstrate that i) economic incentives influence the retirement decision, ii) there is a significant net induced retirement effect, iii) by a conservative judgment, at least 50% of the AFP retirees would have stayed in the labor force without the scheme.All correspondence to Espen Bratberg. We are indebted to the referees for detailed remarks, which significantly improved the paper. Financial support from the Norwegian Research Council and the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs is greatly appreciated. We are grateful for valuable comments from Erik Hernæs and Astrid Grasdal, seminar participants at the Norwegian School of Management in Oslo, the Institute for International Economic Studies in Stockholm, and the University of Linz, the 2000 Conference of the European Society for Population Economics in Bonn, and the German-Norwegian Seminar on Social Insurance in Berlin, 2000. Bratberg would also like to thank the Humboldt University for its hospitality during a stay in the winter of 2003. Responsible editor: Christoph M. Schmidt.     

Family planning communication between spouses in Sri Lanka

Drawing on data from a national follow-up survey of 2310 currently married women aged 15-49 conducted in Sri Lanka in 1985, this study examines patterns of family planning communication between spouses, social and economic factors related to those patterns, and the consistency between spouses in their responses to questions about family planning attitudes and practice. The results of the analysis indicate a high degree of family planning communication between spouses in Sri Lanka. The communication, however, varied according to couples' number of living children and to wives' age, education, place of residence, religion, and work status. Multivariate logistic regression generally confirms that older women, those with little or no education, those living on tea estates, and Muslims were less likely to communicate with their husbands on family planning matters than were women in other age, education, residence, and religion categories. These findings suggest the existence of social and cultural obstacles to communication between spouses about family planning matters in Sri Lanka. Among the 577 pairs of spouses whose answers were compared for consistency, a large proportion of wives reported hearing about male contraceptive methods directly from their husbands, and a large proportion of husbands reported hearing about female methods from their wives. These findings are a reminder that both spouses are potentially important sources of information about contraception.     

Retirement against the demographic trend: More older people living longer, working less, and saving less?

The American population is aging rapidly and individuals are living longer. Yet Americans are saving less and older workers are leaving the labor force at younger and younger ages. The accelerated drop in labor force participation corresponds roughly to the introduction of Social Security and the adaption of employer-provided pension plans. I have illustrated that Social Security and employer-provided pension plans provide substantial incentive to leave the labor force early. The quantitative effect of this inducement is illustrated by simulating the effects of changes in pension plan and Social Security provisions on the retirement decisions of employees in a large firm, who are covered by a typical defined benefit pension plan. Scheduled Social Security changes would have little effect on the retirement decisions of employees with a typical defined benefit pension plan like the one considered here. But if the pension plan provisions were changed to correspond to the Social Security changes, the effect would be very large. And, although not contemplated by current legislation, it is clear that an increase in the Social Security early retirement age would have a substantial effect on the early retirement rates of the large number of employees not covered by a pension plan.     

Effect of Retirement on Cognition: Evidence From the Irish Marriage Bar

This study empirically investigates the relationship between retirement duration and cognition among older Irish women using microdata collected in the third wave of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression estimates indicate that the longer an individual has been retired, the lower the cognitive functioning, with other factors thought to affect cognition held constant (e.g., age, education, and early-life socioeconomic conditions). However, retirement is potentially endogenous with respect to cognition because cognition may affect decisions relating to retiring. If so, the OLS estimates will be biased. To test for this possibility, instrumental variable (IV) estimation is used. This method requires an IV that is highly correlated with retirement duration but not correlated with cognition. The instrument used in this study is based on the so-called marriage bar, the legal requirement that women leave paid employment upon getting married, which took effect in Ireland in the 1930s and was abolished only in the 1970s. The IV regression estimates, along with formal statistical tests, provide no evidence in support of the view that cognition affects retirement decisions. The finding of a small negative effect of retirement duration on cognition is robust to alternative empirical specifications. These findings are discussed in the wider context of the effects of work-like and work-related activities on cognition.     

Incorporating husband-wife differences in place utility differentials into migration decision models

This paper extends the micro-level empirical literature on migration decision making by investigating the manner in which husbands' and wives' subjective place utility expectations jointly feed into migration decisions in a low-income country. The authors use expectational data relating to four place utility dimensions and stated migration intentions of 376 village-resident Egyptian couples to test alternative decision models. An ordinal probit estimation technique is employed. The results of the analyses support the hypothesis of husband dominance in migration decisions in this context. The authors conclude with a discussion of the implications of the paper for further theoretical refinement and for migration survey design in this and other developing countries.Dr. McDevitt is a Research Associate of the Carolina Population Center, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Gadalla, former Director of The Social Research Center of The American University in Cairo, is currently Visiting Distinguished Professor of Sociology-Demography, San Diego State University, San Diego.This is a revised version of a paper presented at the 1984 annual meetings of the Population Association of America and cited throughout as McDevitt and Gadalla (1984). The authors wish to acknowledge helpful discussions with Amos Hawley in the early stages of the development of the paper and the guidance of David Guilkey and Larry Taylor with the statistical techniques employed in the work reported in the paper. The research was supported in part by grants 1-R01-HD14943 and 1-T32-HD07168 from the National Institutes of Health.     

Health-related interactions and the self in marriage

This study investigated the association between self processes and married partners' (N = 59 couples) perspectives of their health-related social interactions. Findings revealed that wives' self processes were associated with their social behavior from the perspective of each partner. The wives' self processes differentially predicted wives' and husbands' perspectives of their interactions, however. These findings demonstrate that wives' future expectations for the health of their husband, as well as for their role in maintaining his future health, motivate their current social behavior to promote the positive health lifestyle behaviors of their husband.     

Factors influencing the choice of social security early retirement benefits

The present research focuses directly on the choice of early retirement Social Security benefits in 1973 for men who responded to the National Retirement History Survey. This focus is more appropriate than examining early retirement more generally when the issue is solvency of the Social Security system and appropriate changes in benefits and eligibility. While this study confirms the important role of private pensions, it tests an important concept of availability of suitable work. This factor, which proved to be a significant predictor of early beneficiary status for both blacks and whites, is critical to assumptions concerning the effect of possible changes in the age of eligibility for Social Security Early Retirement benefits. The data are also used to estimate a dramatic increase in poverty among early benficiaries and their families if these benefits were removed from their current income.This research was supported by a grant from the AARP Andrus Foundation     

Subjective utility and plans for childbearing and employment

Nonrecursive models of plans for childbearing and employment were estimated for a sample of white married women, age 26 to 36, with one or two young children. Women's concerns about care of children already born did inhibit their employment plans. Further, plans to have another child in the near future had a direct negative effect on full-time employment plans among women with one child, but not among women with two children. No direct effects of childbearing plans on part-time employment plans were found. In contrast to earlier research on longterm childbearing and employment plans, no direct effects of employment plans on plans for childbearing were found. It is suggested that attainment of the two-child family marks a turning point in the relation between childbearing and wives' employment.This research was partially supported by grants from the Center for Population Research, NICHD to Battelle Human Affairs Research Centers, Seattle, Washington (1-R01-HD10683), and to the Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin, Madison (1-R01-HD05876). I wish to thank Andrew R. Davidson for the opportunity to conduct the research. I am also grateful to Pamela Oliver, Larry Bumpass, and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on earlier versions of this article.     

Quality of life research: New challenges and new opportunities

In recent years there has been growing interest in applied quality of life research and involving the community in the research process with the ultimate goal of improving the social and economic circumstances of people. Increasingly, community-university partnerships are seen as an effective vehicle to achieve this. The Community-University Institute for Social Research (CUISR) based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada is a successful example of such as partnership. CUISR’s quality of life module has conducted extensive research in Saskatoon and has been active in engaging the community in developing strategies and setting priorities for action. This paper serves as a brief introduction to the Special Edition of Social Indicators Research. It provides the context for the collection of articles contained in the publication and outlines its organization.     

Does financial self-efficacy explain gender differences in retirement saving strategies?

Research indicates that women remain less financially prepared for retirement than are men. Little research has examined the gender difference in use of retirement plans. The present research assessed the gender difference in use of employer-sponsored and private retirement plans, and sought to account for this difference. Social status and human capital factors, occupation and industry of employment, and sense of financial self-efficacy were expected to account for gender differences. Findings indicated gender has no relationship with use of private retirement plans. However, females were found to be less likely to use an employer-sponsored plan, and this was largely accounted for by gender differences in occupation.     

The expected length of male retirement in the United States, 1850–1990

This paper estimates the expected length of retirement for each labor market cohort between 1850 and 1990. Since 1850, the expected length of retirement has increased by more than six-fold and now represents up to 30% of male length of life after entry into the labor force. The rise of the duration of retirement during the twentieth century is analyzed according to the effects of mortality decline and of decreased age of retirement. Implications of the result for a number of economic issues, including the relative importance of life-cycle savings and the potential saving effect of Social Security, are discussed. Received: 22 September 1999/Accepted: 11 July 2000     

Moving South: The Economic Motives and Structural Context of North America’s Emigrants in Cuenca,Ecuador

ABSTRACT

The article is based on qualitative interviews with lifestyle migrants from North America to Cuenca, Ecuador. It attempts to further the understanding of transnational migration scholars of the structural contexts that influence lifestyle migration decisions and agency. In 2009, Cuenca was selected by international lifestyle marketer International Living as the best retirement destination in the world, largely based on a methodology that privileges low real estate and living costs. Since then, perhaps as many as 5000 North Americans have moved to the city. North Americans in Cuenca report economic motivation as a major reason for their move, and report making those decisions against a backdrop of economic and financial insecurity. The article argues that they are economic migrants, even as their relatively higher spending power has economic consequences for receiving communities like Cuenca.     

Gender and racial inequities in retirement resources

Two waves of a Social Security Beneficiary survey were analyzed to consider differences in the retirement resources of women and men based on marital status and race/ethnicity. Despite increased workforce participation the economic situation of single women, including white women, worsened over time. A bifurcation in retirement resources was found, with men relying more on private income sources and women depending more on Social Security. Current retirement policies based on privatization will continue to adversely impact women who work at low-paying jobs, receive lower wages, and live longer than men.