Benítez-Silva Hugo, Yin Na
State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA.
Soc Secur Bull. 2009;69(3):77-95.
In the past few years, the Social Security Old-Age and Survivors Insurance benefit system in the United States has undergone some of the most significant changes since its inception. In a short period of time, we have seen the implementation of the phased increase in the full retirement age (FRA) with the resulting increase in the penalty for claiming benefits early, the elimination of the earnings test for those above the FRA, and the incremental increase in the delayed retirement credit (DRC) for those claiming benefits after the FRA. Because these changes have taken place only recently, there is relatively little research using household-level data that analyzes the consequences of all these changes. Using the public-use microdata extract from the Master Beneficiary Record, we are able to uncover a number of interesting trends in benefit claiming behavior and level of benefit receipt, which can help us understand how the changes in the system are shaping the retirement benefit claiming behavior of older Americans. We find evidence of substantial effects of the removal of the earnings test and the increase in the FRA, but evidence of very small effects as a result of the increases in the DRC.
在过去几年里，美国社会保障老年及遗属保险福利系统经历了自创立以来一些最为重大的变革。在短时间内，我们见证了法定退休年龄（FRA）分阶段提高的实施，以及提前申领福利惩罚力度随之增加；对于超过法定退休年龄的人群取消了收益测试；对于在法定退休年龄之后申领福利的人群，延迟退休抵免（DRC）逐步增加。由于这些变化是最近才发生的，使用家庭层面数据来分析所有这些变化后果的研究相对较少。通过利用从主要受益人记录中提取的公开微观数据，我们能够揭示福利申领行为和福利领取水平方面的一些有趣趋势，这有助于我们理解该系统的变化如何塑造美国老年人的退休福利申领行为。我们发现取消收益测试和提高法定退休年龄产生了重大影响的证据，但延迟退休抵免增加的影响非常小。
