Public Knowledge About the Social Security Retirement Program : Differences by Race and Ethnicity

Using data from the first three waves of the Understanding America Study, the authors examine how public knowledge of the Social Security retirement program helps individuals to make optimal decisions about saving and the timing of benefit claiming. They use descriptive statistics to highlight differences in program knowledge by respondents’ race/ethnicity as well as by age, education level, and sex. They also discuss the implications of their findings and suggest directions for future research