The Survey Research Center (SRC), the Federal Reserve Board, and several other Federal agencies propose a Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) in 1989. The project will consist of two major parts: a re-interview with approximately 2700 of the panel of households who participated in the 1983 SCF, and an interview with a new sample of 3000 households. This proposal seeks NIA funding for the portion of the existing panel sample with heads aged 45 or older in 1989. The proposal calls for development and execution of a survey instrument for these households, preparation of a public-use data file, and preliminary analytic work with the data. The analytic work will concentrate on such issues as the interrelationships between wealth and savings and health, retirement, living arrangements among the elderly, and inter-family bequests and transfers. Coordination for all parts of the survey will be provided by representatives drawn from SRC, the Federal Reserve Board, other Federal agencies, and academe. The 1989 survey will gather detailed data on household assets, liabilities, income, pension and Social Security rights, expectations about retirement, work history, and information on attitudes, insurance, health and functioning, and health expenditures. In addition, it is proposed to repeat a supplementary survey of employers of those respondents reporting pension benefits which was conducted as part of the 1983 SCF. Together, these data will allow an unparalleled opportunity to examine the interrelations of saving, actual and perceived pension rights, labor supply, retirement planning, and health. The 1983 SCF and an earlier re-interview with the panel in 1986 provide a base from which to measure changes in household behavior and the dynamics of wealth accumulation in light of changes in marital status, living arrangements, health, retirement, and other events. While the comparative advantage of the survey is in the accurate measurement of wealth and its components, it is the only survey that also makes detailed measurements of benefits and other features of households' pension plans.
