期刊名称：CORE Discussion Papers / Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (UCL), Louvain
出版年度：2000
卷号：2000
出版社：Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (UCL), Louvain
摘要：This paper focuses on Social Security benefit claiming behavior, a take-
up decision that has been ignored in the previous literature. Using fi-
nancial calculations and simulations based on an expected utility max-
imization model, we show that delaying benefit claim for a period of
time after retirement is optimal in a wide variety of cases and that
gains from delay may be significant. We find that approximately 10%
of men retiring before their 62nd
birthday delay claiming for at least
one year after eligibility. We estimate hazard and probit models using
data from the New Beneficiary Data System to test four cross-sectional
predictions. While the data suggest that too few men delay, we find
that the pattern of delays by early retirees is generally consistent with
the hypotheses generated by our theoretical model.
