Working Papers

Wharton Pension Research Council Working Papers

• Building Better Retirement Systems in the Wake of the Global Pandemic January 6, 2020
  In the wake of the global pandemic known as COVID-19, retirees, along with those hoping to retire someday, have been shocked into a new awareness of the need for better risk management tools to handle longevity and aging. This paper offers an assessment of the status quo prior to the spread of the coronavirus, evaluates […]
• Financial Education Affects Financial Knowledge and Downstream Behaviors
  We study the rapidly growing literature on the causal effects of financial education programs in a meta-analysis of 76 randomized experiments with a total sample size of over 160,000 individuals. The evidence shows that financial education programs have, on average, positive causal treatment effects on financial knowledge and downstream financial behaviors. Treatment effects are economically […]
• How the Coronavirus Could Permanently Cut Near-Retirees’ Social Security Benefits March 4, 2020
  As a group, retirees are more financially insulated from the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic than are most other demographic groups in the United States. Yet due to how the Social Security benefit formula interacts with the sharp economic downturn due to the Coronavirus, some groups of near-retirees are likely to suffer substantial permanent […]
• Social Security Research at the University of Michigan Retirement and Disability Research Center June 2, 2020
  In 1998, the Social Security Administration established the Retirement Research Consortium to encourage research on topics related to Social Security and the well-being of older Americans, and to foster communication between the academic and policy communities. The Michigan Retirement Research Center (MRRC) participated in the Consortium from its inception until 2019, when the MRRC expanded […]
• Are Career Jobs Headed for Extinction? / Career Jobs are Dead / Reply: Premature Reports of Demise January 1, 2001