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Cohort Changes in Social Security Benefits and Pension Wealth

Author

Listed:
  • Chichun Fang

    (University of Michigan)

  • Charles Brown

    (University of Michigan)

  • David Weir

    (University of Michigan)

Abstract
We utilize three sets of data resources—the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), linked Social Security earnings records of the HRS respondents, and publicly available pension plan descriptions—to study pension wealth accumulations among the recent HRS cohorts. We document the trends in pension wealth over time and across cohorts during a period in which the economic consequences of the Great Recession were significant. However, given that pension wealth of many respondents were imputed in earlier waves due to the lack of information about pension plan provisions, there is the question of how much of the changes in pension wealth should be attributed to errors in imputation. The recently available pension plan descriptions from private employers’ Form 5500 filings and public employers’ websites, which improve the respondent-plan linkage over what was available in previous waves, allow us to examine this exact question. In particular, we show that the newly available sets of information not only reduce the need for imputation, but also enable us to identify the plans not reported by HRS respondents in the survey and the retirement wealth associated with these plans. Finally, we also test the validity of the earnings projection methods used to produce Social Security and pension wealth estimates in the HRS, and we end our report with a discussion over the pros and cons among the projection methods.

Suggested Citation

  • Chichun Fang & Charles Brown & David Weir, 2016. "Cohort Changes in Social Security Benefits and Pension Wealth," Working Papers wp350, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:mrr:papers:wp350
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    File URL: http://mrdrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/Papers/pdf/wp350.pdf
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    Cited by:

    1. John Sabelhaus & Alice Henriques Volz, 2020. "Social Security Wealth, Inequality, and Life-Cycle Saving," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring Distribution and Mobility of Income and Wealth, pages 249-285, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. John Sabelhaus & Alice Henriques Volz, 2020. "Social Security Wealth, Inequality, and Lifecycle Saving," NBER Working Papers 27110, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Wolff, Edward N., 2023. "Mortality differentials, the racial and ethnic retirement wealth gap, and the COVID-19 Pandemic," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 26(C).
    4. Ghilarducci, Teresa & Radpour, Siavash & Webb, Anthony, 2022. "Retirement plan wealth inequality: measurement and trends," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(1), pages 119-139, January.
    5. Michael Papadopoulos, 2020. "Reservation Wages and Work Arrangements: Evidence From The American Life Panel," SCEPA working paper series. 2020-01, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    6. Dhiren Patki, 2021. "Breaking the Implicit Contract: Using Pension Freezes to Study Lifetime Labor Supply," Working Papers 21-7, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    7. John Sabelhaus & Alice Henriques Volz, 2020. "Social Security Wealth, Inequality, and Life-cycle Saving: An Update," Working Papers wp416, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.

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