Complements or Substitutes? Young Germans' Experience and Expectations with Financing Sources for Long-Term Care.

Financing long-term care is a growing challenge in aging societies. To address this challenge, Germany created public long-term care insurance (DPV) more than 25 years ago. Germans still need to prepare for their own care throughout their life course to supplement public insurance.

Economic Inequality, the Digital Divide, and Remote Learning During COVID-19.

Wealth and education establish a cycle of intergenerational inequality. Wealthier households can provide more educational opportunities for their children, who then will have more chances to build wealth for themselves. The digital divide may have emerged as a key reinforcing mechanism of education through wealth and of future wealth through education during the pandemic.

Simulating How Large Policy Proposals Affect the Black-White Wealth Gap.

The wealth gap between African-American and White households has persisted for decades, prompting policymakers and experts to suggest several large-scale interventions. We evaluate the possible impact of five such proposals on the Black-White wealth gap. These interventions include debt-free college, baby bonds, civil rights enforcement in housing markets, credit market regulations enforcement, and a national retirement savings plan.

The Demographics and Economics of Direct Care Staff Highlight Their Vulnerabilities Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic.

An estimated 3.5 million direct care staff working in facilities and people's homes play a critical role during the COVID-19 pandemic. They allow vulnerable care recipients to stay at home and they provide necessary help in facilities.

Policy responses during the Trump administration to older people's growing economic risk exposure.

Economic risk exposure through increased labor market volatility and growing caregiving responsibilities has risen for older Americans. At the same time, key protections such as unemployment insurance and Social Security have declined, while other protections-particularly in the private market-are limited or nonexistent. Social policy can lower the chance of risk exposure and the associated costs, especially with respect to unemployment and caregiving.

Push or Pull: Changes in the Relative Risk and Growth of Entrepreneurship Among Older Households.

Purpose Of The Study: Amid insufficient retirement savings and the growing need to work longer, it is important to understand why self-employment, especially entrepreneurship, has grown among older households. Older households may have been pushed into entrepreneurship by the growing risks of wage-and-salary employment as wages and jobs have become less stable. Alternatively, older households may have been pulled into entrepreneurship as the associated risks have declined, for instance, due to greater opportunities to diversify income away from risky business income.

Boon or bane: 401(k) loans and employee contributions.

Economic and behavioral theories arrive at different conclusions about the effect of being allowed to borrow from one's defined-contribution (DC) retirement plan on people's contributions to DC plans. Traditional life-cycle models unambiguously suggest that the borrowing option makes people better off than not being able to borrow. Households consequently contribute more to their DC plans than they would absent the borrowing option.

Did retirees save enough to compensate for the increase in individual risk exposure?

The United States experienced an unprecedented financial crisis after 2007. This paper analyzes whether retirees had enough wealth built up to weather the financial risks that materialized in the crisis. Financial risks associated with saving for retirement had increasingly shifted onto individuals and away from the public and employers during the decades before the crisis.

What happens to defined contribution accounts when labor markets and financial markets move together?

The relationship among earnings, savings, and retirement is well known; however, the linkage between labor market outcomes and financial market performance is generally unacknowledged. We examine the implications of the link between labor markets and financial markets for workers who save money in individual retirement accounts. Specifically, differences in labor market outcomes across groups may imply differences in the timing of investments, which may reduce savings over time for these groups compared to their counterparts.

PURE: a proposal for more retirement income security.

Despite large public policy efforts over the past 30 years, a large minority of households remains consistently inadequately prepared for retirement. If policymakers want to address this shortcoming, public policy has to change from its current path. This paper suggests a system of mandatory private pensions funded by a minimum mandatory contribution of 3% of payroll.

A prescription for more retirement income security: retiree health insurance coverage in an era of declining access to employer-sponsored insurance.

As health care costs have been rising, especially for prescription drugs, employers have curtailed access to employer-sponsored retiree health insurance, especially for future retirees. This paper studies the question whether declining access has already translated into measurable loss of coverage for retirees. Based on data from the Current Population Survey and the Medical Expenditures Panel Survey, we find that retirees have lost health insurance and prescription drug coverage since 1996.