Modeling the Effect of Health on Retirement

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议研究的目的是双重的。首先，它将探讨使用各种健康措施来解释接近正常退休年龄的个人的劳动力市场行为的潜在有效性。这项工作的结果将被纳入退休行为的结构模型。数据将来自正在进行的健康与退休研究（MRS）。即将推出的MRS身体表现测量为实现第一个目标提供了绝佳的机会，而且该研究精确地包含了对老年工人劳动力行为建模所需的变量。提出的结构模型解决了健康、财政资源和劳动力市场行为在工作生涯后期之间的相互作用。我们建议使用详细的纵向经济模型来分析当工人接近退休年龄时，健康状况和经济因素如何共同影响劳动力行为，并特别关注人们在健康状况下降时所做的选择。我们的工作与其他经济学家的工作在以下几个重要方面有所不同：首先，我们的大部分工作将侧重于健康的适当衡量；其次，我们将区分老年工人可以做出的各种劳动力市场选择，包括换工作（以适应健康限制）和申请残疾保险。我们打算提出的研究服务于几个重要功能。首先，它应该通过将健康和经济因素对退休行为的影响这两项重要但迄今在很大程度上是分开的研究结合在一起，提高人们对老年劳动力行为的理解。在此过程中，它应及时提供证据，说明社会保障、残疾保险和医疗保险等项目的变化可能对行为和财政产生的影响。此外，我们的研究结果应提供关于MRS中可用的详细健康和经济数据的质量和使用的额外信息，并有助于量化使用不太详细的数据集可能存在的局限性。与公共卫生的相关性：拟议的研究有可能在一个非常基本的层面上影响研究人员在研究行为时衡量健康的方式。它还将提供重要证据，说明各种可能的社会保障制度改革对那些接近退休年龄、健康状况不佳的人的福祉的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of the proposed research is two-fold. First, it will explore the potential validity of using various types of health measures to explain labor market behavior as individuals near normal retirement age. Results from this work will then be incorporated into a structural model of retirement behavior. Data will come from the ongoing Health and Retirement Study (MRS). The upcoming availability of physical performance measures on the MRS provides an excellent opportunity to accomplish the first goal, and the Study contains precisely the variables needed to model the labor force behavior of older workers. The proposed structural model addresses the interplay between health, financial resources, and labor market behavior in the later part of working life. We propose to use well-specified longitudinal economic models to analyze how health status and economic factors jointly affect labor force behavior as workers approach retirement age, with particular focus on the choices people make when their health declines. Our work can be distinguished from the work being done by other economists in a number of important respects: first, much of our work will focus on the appropriate measurement of health; second, we will distinguish between various labor market choices older workers can make including job change (to accommodate health limitations) and applying for disability insurance. We intend the proposed research to serve several important functions. First, it should improve understanding of labor force behavior as people age, by tying together two important but hitherto largely separate lines of research: research on the effects of health and of economic factors, respectively, on retirement behavior. In doing so, it should provide timely evidence on the possible behavioral and fiscal effects of changes in such programs as Social Security, disability insurance, and Medicare. In addition, our findings should provide additional information on the quality and uses of the detailed health and economic data available in the MRS and help quantify the possible limitations of using less detailed datasets. Relevance for Public Health: The proposed research has the potential to influence, at a very fundamental level, the way that researchers measure health when studying behavior. It will also provide important evidence on the effects of various possible reforms of the Social Security System on the well being of those who near retirement age in poor health.