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What factors explain the decline in widows' poverty?
What factors explain the decline in widows' poverty?
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Center for Retirement Research working paper
- Author(s):
- Munnell, Alicia H., author
Sanzenbacher, Geoffrey T., author
Zulkarnain, Alice, author - Contributor(s):
- Boston College. Center for Retirement Research, issuing body.
- Publication:
- Chestnut Hill, MA : Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, May 2018
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Poverty -- trends
Social Security -- trends
Widowhood -- statistics & numerical data
United States - Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- One of Social Security's objectives is to ensure that vulnerable groups have adequate income in retirement. Historically, widows have been of particular concern for policymakers due to their high rates of poverty. However, over the past several decades, their poverty rate has fallen considerably. If it falls farther, widowhood may warrant lower placement on policymakers' priority list. To understand why this decline has occurred and what it means for the future, this project uses the Health and Retirement Study linked to administrative earnings and benefit records. Specifically, the project focuses on three factors that could explain the decline in widows' poverty: (1) women's rising levels of education; 2) their increased attachment to the labor force; and 3) increasing marital "selection"--i.e., the notion that while marriage used to be equally distributed, it is becoming less common among those with lower socioeconomic status. The project explores what share of the decline in poverty can be explained by these factors and also projects the role of these factors in the future. The paper found that: (1) The rise in education and labor force participation explain most of the decline in widows' average poverty rate from 20 percent in 1994 to 13 percent in 2014. (2) So far, marital selection has not been a driving force in the decline in widows' poverty. (3) The projections suggest that widows' poverty will continue to fall over the next 15 years. (4) In the future, up to half of this reduction could be explained by the increasing selection of women into marriage. The policy implications of the findings are: (1) While the projected decline in widows' poverty may allow policymakers to shift some of their focus to more vulnerable groups, widows will remain poorer than married women. (2) Considering the effect on widows of any change that would bring fiscal balance to the Social Security program will continue to be important.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (21 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101761754 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101761754