_________________________________________________________________
SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH NETWORK
E M P L O Y E E B E N E F I T S , C O M P E N S A T I O N
& P E N S I O N L A W
Vol. 7, No. 26: September 21, 2006
Editors: PAMELA J. PERUN
Urban Institute
PAMELA@PLANETNOW.COM
_________________________________________________________________
BROWSE all abstracts in this subject:
http://www.ssrn.com/link/benefits-compensation-pension-law.html
SEARCH entire eLibrary at: http://ssrn.com/search
If this document is misaligned, please set type face to a
non-proportional font such as Courier 10.
_________________________________________________________________
Topic of This Issue:
Retirement Issues
_________________________________________________________________
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
"Retiree Health Benefit Coverage and Retirement"
JAMES MARTON
Martiin School of Public Policy and Administration
STEPHEN WOODBURY
Michigan State University, W.E. Upjohn Institute for
Employment Research, National Bureau of Economic
Research (NBER)
"Differing Prospects for Women and Men: Young Old-Age, Old
Old-Age, and Elder"
LOIS B. SHAW
Institute for Women?s Policy Research
"The Location of Immigrants at Retirement: Stay/Return or
'Va-et-Vient'?"
AUGUSTIN DE COULON
Institute of Education, U.K., Centre for Economic
Performance, London School of Economics & Political
Science (LSE), Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
FRANCOIS-CHARLES WOLFF
University of Nantes
"Means-Testing Medicare: Retiree Pain for Little Governmental
Gain"
RICHARD L. KAPLAN
University of Illinois College of Law
"Maryland's Wal-Mart Act: Policy and Preemption"
EDWARD A. ZELINSKY
Cardozo Law School
_________________________________________________________________
"Retiree Health Benefit Coverage and Retirement"
Levy Economics Institute Working Paper
Contact: JAMES MARTON
Martiin School of Public Policy and Administration
Email: marton@uky.edu
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=659582
Co-Author: STEPHEN WOODBURY
Michigan State University, W.E. Upjohn Institute
for Employment Research, National Bureau of
Economic Research (NBER)
Email: WOODBUR2@PILOT.MSU.EDU
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=31000
Full Text: http://ssrn.com/abstract=924236
ABSTRACT: Employer-provided health benefits for workers who
retire before age 65 has fallen over the last decade. We examine
a cohort of male workers from the Health and Retirement Survey to
explore the dynamics of retiree health benefits and the
relationship between retiree health benefits and retirement
behavior. A better understanding of this relationship is
important to the policy debate over the best way to increase
health coverage for older Americans without reducing work
incentives. Concerning the dynamics at work, we find that,
between 1992 and 1996, 24 percent of full-time workers who had
retiree health benefits lost their coverage, while 15 percent of
full-time workers who lacked coverage gained it. Also, of the
full-time employed men who were covered by retiree health
benefits in 1992 and had retired by 1996, 3 percent were
uninsured, and 15 percent were covered by health insurance other
than employer-provided insurance. On the relationship between
retiree health benefits and retirement, we find that workers with
retiree benefits were 29 to 55 percent more likely to retire than
those without. We also find that workers who are eligible for
retiree health benefits tend to take advantage of them when they
are relatively young.
______________________________
"Differing Prospects for Women and Men: Young Old-Age, Old
Old-Age, and Elder"
Levy Economics Institute Working Paper No. 464
Contact: LOIS B. SHAW
Institute for Women?s Policy Research
Email: lbshaw@his.com
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=656484
Full Text: http://ssrn.com/abstract=921373
ABSTRACT: Although elderly men and women share many of the same
problems as they age, their lives are likely to follow different
courses. Women are more likely than men to live into old old-age
and are more likely to spend part of their young old-age caring
for husbands or parents. By providing this unpaid care women
might enter retirement earlier, rather than prolonging their
working lives. Because they live longer, but are less likely than
men to live with someone who will care for them, women are also
more likely than men to require paid care either at home or in a
nursing home. Proposals to reduce government spending on Social
Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will thus have different
implications for women and men. This paper evaluates changes in
these programs, and describes alternative and innovative ways of
providing and paying for eldercare in other countries as well as
in the United States.
______________________________
"The Location of Immigrants at Retirement: Stay/Return or
'Va-et-Vient'?"
IZA Discussion Paper No. 2224
Contact: AUGUSTIN DE COULON
Institute of Education, U.K., Centre for Economic
Performance, London School of Economics & Political
Science (LSE), Institute for the Study of Labor
(IZA)
Email: a.decoulon@ioe.ac.uk
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=294067
Co-Author: FRANCOIS-CHARLES WOLFF
University of Nantes
Email: wolff@sc-eco.univ-nantes.fr
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=361875
Full Text: http://ssrn.com/abstract=921393
ABSTRACT: In this paper, we investigate the location choice of
immigrants when retiring. In a context where labour
considerations no longer matter, the location decisions are
expected to depend not only on a comparison of standard-of-living
between the origin and host countries, but should also be
affected by the strength of family relationships. Assuming that
migrants derive some satisfaction from contact and visits with
other family members, we suggest that migrants may choose a third
type of migration move beyond the standard stay/return decision
called the "va-et-vient," where individuals choose to share their
time across the host and the origin country. In the empirical
analysis, we investigate the determinants of the location
intention when retiring using a recent data set on migrants
currently living in France. We find that the migrant's choice is
significantly related to the location of other family members and
that those determinants vary with respect to the different
preferred choices.
______________________________
"Means-Testing Medicare: Retiree Pain for Little Governmental
Gain"
U Illinois Law & Economics Research Paper No. LE06-019
Illinois Public Law Research Paper No. 06-10
Journal of Retirement Planning, May-June 2006
Contact: RICHARD L. KAPLAN
University of Illinois College of Law
Email: RKAPLAN@LAW.UIUC.EDU
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=230538
Full Text: http://ssrn.com/abstract=918100
ABSTRACT: Medicare Part B covers most doctors' fees, diagnostic
tests, ambulance services, and certain other items. Enrollees pay
a monthly premium that is calculated to cover 25 percent of the
program's expenditures, with the remaining 75 percent coming from
general governmental revenues. But starting in 2007, this
cost-sharing ratio will be increased for retirees whose annual
taxable income exceeds $80,000. This means-testing of Medicare
was adopted in the mammoth 2003 Medicare Act that also provided
coverage of prescription drugs and was accelerated by the Deficit
Reduction Act that was enacted in February 2006. This article
examines the decade-long policy debate about means-testing
Medicare and explores the tax implications of the mechanism that
was finally created. The article also analyzes concerns about the
joint administration of this program by the Social Security
Administration and the Internal Revenue Service, and discusses
such financial ramifications for upper-income retirees as capped
contributions from former employers and possible nonenrollment in
Medicare Part B.
______________________________
"Maryland's Wal-Mart Act: Policy and Preemption"
Cardozo Law Review, Forthcoming
Author: EDWARD A. ZELINSKY
Cardozo Law School
Email: ZELINSKY@PRODIGY.NET
Auth-Page: http://ssrn.com/author=239302
Full Text: http://ssrn.com/abstract=926740
ABSTRACT: Maryland's Wal-Mart Act raises two fundamental
questions: Is the Act legal? Does the Act represent sound policy?
With respect to the legality of the Maryland statute, I conclude
that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA)
preempts the Maryland law. As a matter of policy, the Maryland
statute is ill-conceived. The Maryland Act raises prices on
Wal-Mart's predominantly low-income customers and, for the long
run, will reduce Wal-Mart's employment.
In the final analysis, Maryland's Wal-Mart Act is a
poorly-designed exercise in political symbolism, rather than a
carefully-crafted response to the pressing problem of health care
in America.
__________________________________________________________________
S O L I C I T A T I O N O F A B S T R A C T S
Employee Benefits, Compensation and Pension Law Abstracts is
a forum for the exchange of ideas by policy makers,
practitioners and researchers on current employee benefits
issues. It publishes abstracts of working papers and recently
published and forthcoming articles on the full spectrum of
employee benefits, both in the U.S. and abroad, such as
healthcare, pension and savings arrangements, cash and equity
compensation, and Social Security. The initial issues will
feature articles from academic researchers, a reflection of
the current composition of the SSRN database. Permission from
publishers is being sought to expand the database to include
abstracts representing practitioner and policy perspectives.
Individual abstract submissions in all areas are strongly
encouraged and should be submitted on the SSRN website at
http://www.ssrn.com or via email to the addresses below, with
a copy to Pamela Perun. Any suggestions for additional
abstract and paper resources and questions should be sent to
Mailto:Pamela_Perun@SSRN.com
To submit your research to SSRN, log in to the SSRN User
HeadQuarters, http://hq.ssrn.com, and click on the My Papers
link on the left menu, and then click on Start New Submission
at the top of the page.
_________________________________________________________________
D I S T R I B U T I O N S E R V I C E S
If your Institution is interested in learning more about
increasing readership for its research by becoming a Partner
in Publishing or starting a Research Paper Series, please
email: Management@SSRN.com.