CDHA CAAR

A. “The Role of Retiree Health Insurance in the Early Retirement of Public Sector Employees,” by John B. Shoven and Sita Slavov (w19563, October 2013, .pdf format, 26p.).

Most private sector workers with employer-provided health insurance have a strong incentive to continue working until Medicare eligibility in order to maintain group health coverage. However, most government employees have access to retiree health coverage, which allows them access to group health coverage even if they retire before Medicare eligibility. We study the impact of retiree health coverage on the probability of stopping work among public sector workers between the ages of 55 and 64. We find that, for state and local government employees, retiree health coverage raises the probability of stopping work by 5.1 percentage points (around 28 percent) between ages 60 and 64. However, we find no evidence that retiree health coverage influences state and local employees’ decisions to stop work at ages 55-59, or that such coverage has an effect on the probability of stopping work for federal and military employees.

www.nber.org/papers/w19563

B. “Defined Contribution Pension Plans: Sticky or Discerning Money?” by Clemens Sialm, Laura Starks, and Hanjiang Zhang (w19569, October 2013, .pdf format, 53p.).

Abstract:

Participants in defined contribution (DC) retirement plans rarely adjust their portfolio allocations, suggesting that their investment choices and consequent money flows are sticky and not discerning. Yet, the participants’ inertia could be offset by the DC plan sponsors, who adjust the plan’s investment options. We examine these countervailing influences on flows into U.S. mutual funds. We find that flows into funds that derive from DC assets are more volatile and exhibit more performance sensitivity than non-DC flows, primarily due to the adjustments of the investment options by the plan sponsors. Thus, DC retirement money is less sticky and more discerning.

www.nber.org/papers/w19569

C. “How Family Status and Social Security Claiming Options Shape Optimal Life Cycle Portfolios,” by Andreas Hubener, Raimond Maurer, and Olivia S. Mitchell (w19583, October 2013, .pdf format, 46p.).

Abstract:

Household decisions are profoundly shaped by a complex set of financial options due to Social Security rules determining retirement, spousal, and survivor benefits, along with benefit adjustments that vary with the age at which these are claimed. These rules influence optimal household asset allocation, insurance, and work decisions, given life cycle demographic shocks such as marriage, divorce, and children. Our model generates a wealth profile and a low and stable equity fraction consistent with empirical evidence. We also confirm predictions that wives will claim retirement benefits earlier than husbands, while life insurance is mainly purchased by younger men. Our policy simulations imply that eliminating survivor benefits would sharply reduce claiming differences by sex while dramatically increasing men’s life insurance purchases.

www.nber.org/papers/w19583

D. “Who Pays for Public Employee Health Costs?” by Jeffrey Clemens and David M. Cutler (w19582, October 2013, .pdf format, 57p.).

Abstract:

We analyze the incidence of public-employee health benefits. Because these benefits are negotiated through the political process, relevant labor market institutions deviate significantly from the competitive, private-sector benchmark. Empirically, we find that roughly 15 percent of the cost of recent benefit growth was passed onto school district employees through reductions in wages and salaries. Strong teachers’ unions were associated with relatively strong linkages between benefit growth and growth in total compensation. We further find that when economic conditions are poor, straining public budgets, benefit growth is more readily shifted back to public employees. Our analysis is consistent with the view that the costs of public workers’ benefits are difficult to monitor, contributing to benefit oriented, and often under-funded, compensation schemes.

www.nber.org/papers/w19574