Studying retirement decisions

In this article, researches from the NBER show that retirement decision are affected by how benefits are framed. Given that in the United States eligible workers can claim benefits anytime from age 62-70, the study shows that the use of a “break-even analysis” has the very strong effect of encouraging individuals to claim early and that individuals are more likely to report they will delay claiming when later claiming is framed as a gain, and when the information provides an anchoring point at older, rather than younger, ages. These type of studies complement the “old” literature that stablish that workers make rational decision to retire based on cost-benefit analysis of posponing retirement one year.