The Social Security Early Entitlement Age in a Structural Model of Retirement and Wealth

Abstract

A structural life cycle model of retirement and wealth attributes retirement peaks at both ages 62 and 65 to Social Security rules and wide heterogeneity in time preferences. Those with high discount rates often retire at 62. They have few assets and heavily value lost benefits from working after 62, largely ignoring potential increases in later benefits. Declining actuarial adjustments beginning at 65 induce those with low discount rates to retire at 65. Raising the Social Security early entitlement age to 64 induces 5 percent of the population to delay retiring, shifting the retirement spike from 62 to 64.

Keywords: Social Security, Retirement, Saving, Life Cycle, Heterogeneity

JEL Classification: H55, J14, J26, J32, D31, E21, D91, I3