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The effects of subjective survival on retirement and Social Security claiming
Author(s) -
Hurd Michael D.,
Smith James P.,
Zissimopoulos Julie M.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of applied econometrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.878
H-Index - 99
eISSN - 1099-1255
pISSN - 0883-7252
DOI - 10.1002/jae.752
Subject(s) - social security , economics , actuarial science , retirement age , demographic economics , pension , finance , market economy
Abstract According to the life‐cycle model, mortality risk will influence both retirement and the desire to annuitize wealth. We estimate the effect of subjective survival probabilities on retirement and on the claiming of Social Security benefits because delayed claiming is equivalent to the purchase of additional Social Security annuities. We find that those with very low subjective probabilities of survival retire earlier and claim earlier than those with higher subjective probabilities, but the effects are not large. The great majority of workers claim as soon as they are eligible. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.