Changes Across Birth Cohorts in Income Adequacy from Pre-Retirement to Death: Evidence from IRS Tax Data
Investigators: John Beshears (Harvard and NBER), James J. Choi (Yale and NBER), David Laibson (Harvard and NBER), Brigitte C. Madrian (Harvard and NBER)
This project uses IRS data to analyze how the level, composition and distribution of income has changed for older Americans over the last two decades. The analysis will inform our understanding of the financial wellbeing of Social Security beneficiaries in an era when fewer retirees are covered by traditional employer-provided defined-benefit pension plans. The project will measure changes in the trajectory of income from pre-retirement through death, including the composition of income sources, the mean level of income, and cross-sectional income inequality. It will also analyze changes in the fraction of households that rely exclusively on Social Security.
