This paper analyzes the effect of a potential reform to the Social Security system on individuals' retirement and consumption choices. We first estimate the coefficients for a life-cycle model. We assume intratemporally nonseparable preference orderings and endogenous retirement. Our framework...

To study the role of home production in life¿cycle behavior, this paper creates a theoretical model in which both spouses in a couple allocate their time between market and home work. It then derives a pair of regression equations for estimating the parameters of the model, and it carries out...

Economists have long thought of technological progress as a primary determinant of rising living standards over time. One might think of technological progress as increasing the "effectiveness" of labor, thereby raising the amount of output that each unit of labor can produce. The purpose of...

Using pseudo-panel data, we estimate the structural parameters of a life-cycle consumption model with discrete labor supply choice. A focus of our analysis is the abrupt drop in consumption upon retirement for a typical household. The literature sometimes refers to the drop, which in the U.S....

Economists' principal tool for studying household behavioral responses to changes in tax and other government policies, and the magnitude and determinants of private saving, is the life-cycle model. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to incorporate into that model one of the most...

This paper studies the quantitative importance of precautionary wealth accumulation relative to life-cycle saving for retirement. Section 1 examines panel data on earnings from the PSID. Using a bivariate normal model of random effects, we find that second-period-of-life earnings are strongly...

Economists' most basic model for studying Social Security policy issues is the so - called life - cycle model of saving behavior. This paper sets up a life - cycle model in which a household simultaneously chooses its lifetime consumption profile and retirement age. The paper calibrates...

This paper studies the long-run implications for national wealth accumulation of potential changes in the U.S. social security system or in the size of the U.S. national debt. Privatization of a portion of the existing (unfunded) U.S. social security system would, if the national debt were held...

After dropping for a century, the average retirement age for U.S. males seems to have leveled off in recent decades. An important question is whether as future improvements in technology cause wages to rise, desired retirement ages will resume their downward trend, or not. This paper attempts to...

This study seeks to quantify determinants, and costs, of the labor-force participation of married women. We use demographic and earnings data from the Health and Retirement Study. The earnings data constitute an unusually long panel but have the defect of lacking corresponding reports on work...