{
  "title": "Retirement Behaviorist: Wharton Economist Olivia S. Mitchell",
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  "summary": "Peter J. Walker profiles Wharton economist Olivia S. Mitchell, a founder of modern pension research.",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Profile and career highlights",
      "content": "- Author of more than 250 books and articles.\n- Received more than 60 professional honors and awards.\n- Began working on pensions \"40 years ago\" when the field was largely actuarial.\n- Education and early career:\n  - Bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard in 1974.\n  - Completed PhD at the University of Wisconsin in 1978, at the age of 25; dissertation on the effect of high local unemployment on married women’s participation in the labor force.\n  - Early academic posts included Cornell University; later moved to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1993.\n- Public service:\n  - Served on George W. Bush’s bipartisan President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security in 2001.\n  - Served on then-President Michelle Bachelet’s pension commission in Chile (reported as \"five years ago\" in the profile)."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Key findings on retirement trends and Social Security solvency",
      "content": "- Demographics and scale:\n  - US population aged 65 and over rose from 37 million to 49 million between 2006 and 2016.\n  - By 2060 the number will almost double—to 90 million.\n- Social Security financing:\n  - The trillion-dollar Social Security system is the main source of retirement income in the United States.\n  - Starting in 2020, Social Security’s total cost is expected to outstrip its total income.\n  - By 2035, system reserves will be depleted, making it able to honor just three-quarters of scheduled benefits.\n- Claiming behavior and incentives:\n  - More than 40 percent of recipients currently claim Social Security benefits at the minimum age of 62.\n  - Waiting until age 70 (maximum benefits) can increase monthly income by 75 percent compared with claiming at 62.\n  - Social Security Administration has stopped using “break-even” analyses and now provides a more neutral treatment—reflecting findings that break-even framing biases early claiming.\n- Policy-relevant behavioral insights:\n  - Framing retirement decisions as a break-even gamble on longevity encourages early claiming despite longevity risk and the fact that half of people live longer than their life expectancy.\n  - Lump-sum incentives to defer claiming can be structured so they do not change overall program costs and are attractive to older people carrying debt."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Financial literacy, wealth, and retirement preparedness",
      "content": "- Transition from defined-benefit to defined-contribution plans increases individual responsibility and the need for financial knowledge.\n- Mitchell and Annamaria Lusardi developed the “Big Three” financial literacy questions used in the University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study of people over age 50; the “Big Three” have been used in surveys in more than 20 countries.\n- Measured impacts of financial literacy:\n  - Financial literacy can explain between 30 and 40 percent of wealth inequality.\n  - The most financially knowledgeable employees in a business received retirement plan returns 130 basis points, or 1.3 percentage points, higher each year compared with the average worker.\n  - Scenario: If Social Security benefits were reduced by 20 percent (reflective of a projected future shortfall), incentives for low-wage workers to save and invest in financial literacy would rise; projections found median assets would increase by 32 percent among those without a college education and by 19 percent among the college-educated."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Generational and household saving challenges",
      "content": "- Millennials (born between 1980 and 2000):\n  - Given low capital market returns, millennials seeking to retire at 65 must set aside 40 percent of their paycheck.\n  - Current average savings rate is just 6 percent of paycheck.\n  - Competing obligations—student loans, high housing costs—make a 40 percent saving target difficult; Mitchell recommends planning to work longer, redefining retirement to include part-time work, and embracing lifelong learning.\n- Increasing prevalence of debt among retirees:\n  - Retirees today are more likely to have debt due to bigger mortgages, larger credit card debt, and the growth of student and payday loans."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Policy design and practical interventions",
      "content": "- Plan design to encourage later retirement:\n  - Redesign Social Security and workplace communications to avoid break-even framing that biases toward early claiming.\n  - Offer lump-sum incentives for delayed claiming that maintain overall program cost neutrality and appeal to indebted older workers.\n- Longevity income annuities:\n  - A federal measure signed into law in December 2019 encourages employers to include annuities that start paying at least by age 85 in workplace pension plans.\n  - Mitchell’s research shows that if people used just 10 percent of their retirement nest egg to buy a longevity annuity, it would boost well-being at age 85 by 6 to 14 percent.\n- Chilean reforms and international advising:\n  - Recommendations for Chile included broader coverage, a more generous solidarity pillar for the poor, higher contribution rates, and lower fees and commissions for private pension funds; the government is pursuing some recommendations, including a higher solidarity benefit and lower fees and commissions."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Current research agenda and outlook",
      "content": "- Ongoing work includes:\n  - Determinants and consequences of debt at older ages.\n  - Impact of pension guarantees.\n  - How alternative tax structures will alter the way people work, save, invest, consume, and retire.\n- Personal stance on retirement:\n  - Mitchell states that, “barring very poor health, I will never retire!”\n\nInternational Monetary Fund, F&D Magazine profile by Peter J. Walker, March 2020.\n\n---\n\n Content in this bundle\n\n- خبيرة سلوكيات التقاعد\n  - خبيرة سلوكيات التقاعد (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - خبيرة سلوكيات التقاعد (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n- La pensadora de las pensiones ● Finanzas y Desarrollo ● Marzo de 2020\n  - La pensadora de las pensiones ● Finanzas y Desarrollo ● Marzo de 2020 (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - La pensadora de las pensiones ● Finanzas y Desarrollo ● Marzo de 2020 (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n- La béhavioriste des retraites\n  - La béhavioriste des retraites (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - La béhavioriste des retraites (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n- Retirement Behaviorist: Wharton Economist Olivia S. Mitchell – IMF F&D\n  - Retirement Behaviorist: Wharton Economist Olivia S. Mitchell – IMF F&D (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - Retirement Behaviorist: Wharton Economist Olivia S. Mitchell – IMF F&D (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n- 专注于退休研究的行为经济学家 - 经济学人物 - 金融与发展 - 国际货币基金组织季刊 -2020年3月号·第57卷·第1期\n  - 专注于退休研究的行为经济学家 - 经济学人物 - 金融与发展 - 国际货币基金组织季刊 -2020年3月号·第57卷·第1期 (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - 专注于退休研究的行为经济学家 - 经济学人物 - 金融与发展 - 国际货币基金组织季刊 -2020年3月号·第57卷·第1期 (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n\n---\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2020/03/profile-of-wharton-economist-olivia-mitchell-on-pension-research"
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    "Authors: PETER J WALKER",
    "Published: March 2, 2020",
    "Author of more than 250 books and articles.",
    "Received more than 60 professional honors and awards.",
    "Began working on pensions \"40 years ago\" when the field was largely actuarial.",
    "Education and early career:",
    "Public service:",
    "Demographics and scale:",
    "Social Security financing:",
    "Claiming behavior and incentives:",
    "Policy-relevant behavioral insights:",
    "Transition from defined-benefit to defined-contribution plans increases individual responsibility and the need for financial knowledge.",
    "Mitchell and Annamaria Lusardi developed the “Big Three” financial literacy questions used in the University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study of people over age 50; the “Big Three” have been used in surveys in more than 20 countries.",
    "Measured impacts of financial literacy:",
    "Millennials (born between 1980 and 2000):",
    "Increasing prevalence of debt among retirees:",
    "Plan design to encourage later retirement:",
    "Longevity income annuities:",
    "Chilean reforms and international advising:",
    "Ongoing work includes:",
    "Personal stance on retirement:",
    "**خبيرة سلوكيات التقاعد**",
    "**La pensadora de las pensiones ● Finanzas y Desarrollo ● Marzo de 2020**",
    "**La béhavioriste des retraites**",
    "**Retirement Behaviorist: Wharton Economist Olivia S. Mitchell – IMF F&D**",
    "**专注于退休研究的行为经济学家 - 经济学人物 - 金融与发展 - 国际货币基金组织季刊 -2020年3月号·第57卷·第1期**"
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