Whether people reach retirement with adequate resources is a major concern. Several studies investigated this issue by looking at economic outcomes; others focused on retirement planning activities, or workers' pension knowledge at a moment in time. However, little is known about the time-path of individual information on Social Security and pensions and to what extent people acquire more information as they approach retirement. This research takes a dynamic approach studying the evolution of individuals' expectations about their Social Security and pension benefits and subsequent receipts observed in the Health and Retirement Study. It will study time-trends in expected benefits from Social Security and private pensions and compare them to observed outcomes in subsequent waves; assess how respondents account for inflation in their answers about expected benefit receipts; investigate the relation of expected starting ages of benefit receipt with expected retirement ages; assess the importance of uncertainty and its evolution as people approach retirement by considering trends in item non-response, focal responses and anchoring bias; and investigate how poor knowledge relates to bad retirement outcomes. It will explore possible implications of the observed patterns in the dynamics of personal Social Security and pension knowledge for behavioral models of information acquisition. ? ? ?

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Type
Small Research Grants (R03)
Project #
5R03AG024269-02
Application #
6937133
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-HOP-B (90))
Program Officer
Phillips, John
Project Start
2004-08-15
Project End
2008-07-31
Budget Start
2005-08-01
Budget End
2008-07-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2005
Total Cost
$85,809
Indirect Cost
Name
Rand Corporation
Department
Type
DUNS #
006914071
City
Santa Monica
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
90401
Delavande, Adeline; Rohwedder, Susann (2008) Eliciting Subjective Probabilities in Internet Surveys. Public Opin Q 72:866-891