Optimal social security claiming behavior under Lump Sum incentives: theory and evidence
- Many Americans claim Social Security benefits early, though this leaves them with lower benefits throughout retirement. We build a lifecycle model that closely tracks claiming patterns under current rules, and we use it to predict claiming delays if, by delaying benefits, people received a lump sum instead of an annuity. We predict that current early claimers would defer claiming by a year given actuarially fair lump sums, and the predictions conform with respondents’ answers to a strategic survey about the lump sum. In other words, such a reform could provide an avenue for encouraging delayed retirement without benefit cuts or tax increases. Moreover, many people would still defer claiming even for smaller lump sums.
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| Author: | Raimond MaurerORCiDGND, Olivia S. MitchellORCiDGND, Ralph RogallaGND, Tatjana Schimetschek |
|---|---|
| URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-515311 |
| URL: | https://ssrn.com/abstract=3476315 |
| Parent Title (English): | Center for Financial Studies (Frankfurt am Main): CFS working paper series ; No. 629 |
| Series (Serial Number): | CFS working paper series (629) |
| Publisher: | Center for Financial Studies |
| Place of publication: | Frankfurt, M. |
| Document Type: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Year of Completion: | 2019 |
| Year of first Publication: | 2019 |
| Publishing Institution: | Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg |
| Release Date: | 2019/10/28 |
| Tag: | Retirement; Social Security; annuity; delayed claiming; early retirement; pension |
| Issue: | May 4, 2019 |
| Page Number: | 39 |
| Note: | ©2019 Maurer, Mitchell, Rogalla, & Schimetschek. All rights reserved. |
| HeBIS-PPN: | 455257590 |
| Institutes: | Wirtschaftswissenschaften / Wirtschaftswissenschaften |
| Wissenschaftliche Zentren und koordinierte Programme / Center for Financial Studies (CFS) | |
| Wissenschaftliche Zentren und koordinierte Programme / Sustainable Architecture for Finance in Europe (SAFE) | |
| Dewey Decimal Classification: | 3 Sozialwissenschaften / 33 Wirtschaft / 330 Wirtschaft |
| Sammlungen: | Universitätspublikationen |
| Licence (German): |  Deutsches Urheberrecht |
