Saving Shortfalls and Delayed Retirement

31 Pages Posted: 17 Feb 2008

See all articles by Andrew Au

Andrew Au

University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School

Olivia S. Mitchell

University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School, Pension Research Council; University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

John W. R. Phillips

National Institutes on Aging

Date Written: January 2005

Abstract

Prior research has suggested that many older Americans have not saved enough to maintain consumption levels in old age. One way older persons might respond to inadequate savings would be to extend their worklives by delaying retirement. This paper examines evidence on this matter using the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative panel survey of people age 51-61 in 1992 followed for several years in a panel. We use the data to project household retirement assets and to determine how much more saving would be needed to preserve post-retirement consumption levels. Our research then examines the links between derived saving shortfall measures and delayed retirement patterns. Among nonmarried persons, there is evidence that larger shortfalls do produce delayed retirement, though the effect is not quantitatively large. For married couples, pre-retirement wealth shortfalls do not appear to be significantly associated with delayed retirement. Evidently couples have other means of handling saving shortfalls.

Suggested Citation

Au, Andrew and Mitchell, Olivia S. and Phillips, John W. R., Saving Shortfalls and Delayed Retirement (January 2005). Michigan Retirement Research Center Research Paper No. WP 2005-094, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1093707 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1093707

Andrew Au (Contact Author)

University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School ( email )

3641 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6365
United States

Olivia S. Mitchell

University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School, Pension Research Council ( email )

3302 Steinberg Hall-Dietrich Hall
3620 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6302
United States

University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School ( email )

Philadelphia, PA 19104-6365
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

John W. R. Phillips

National Institutes on Aging ( email )

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31 Center Drive, MSC 2292
Bethesda, MD 20892
United States

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