Selected Research & Analysis: Demographic Characteristics > Men

Working and Claiming Behavior at Social Security's Early Eligibility Age Among Men by Lifetime Earnings Decile
ORES Working Paper No. 115 (released September 2020)
by Hilary Waldron

Using a merged internal research file of administrative data from the Social Security Administration, the author examines men's working and retired-worker benefit claiming behavior at and around Social Security's early eligibility age of 62, and disaggregates the results by lifetime earnings decile. She also examines how mortality risk varies among men exhibiting different working and claiming behaviors, before and after controlling for the lifetime earnings decile to which they belong. This paper follows up ORES Working Paper No. 114, which details the study methodology and presents summary findings on men's and women's working and claiming behavior. Both papers find substantial heterogeneity in working and claiming behavior at age 62; in this paper, while differences in men's working and claiming behavior were sometimes observed between lifetime earnings deciles, that heterogeneity in behavior was also observed within each lifetime earnings decile.

Trends in Men's Wages, 1981–2014
from Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 78, No. 1 (released February 2018)
by Patrick J. Purcell

The Social Security Administration maintains wage and salary earnings records for all American workers. From those administrative records, the agency extracts a 1 percent sample called the Continuous Work History Sample (CWHS) for research and statistical purposes. This article uses CWHS data to examine trends in men's real wage and salary earnings from 1981 through 2014. It first describes broad trends for all men aged 25–59. Then it describes the trends over that same span for men in each of seven 5-year age intervals (25–29, 30–34, 35–39, 40–44, 45–49, 50–54, and 55–59), with detail by individual birth cohort. A series of charts shows how men's real wages changed across age groups and birth cohorts within each age group.

Trends in Mortality Differentials and Life Expectancy for Male Social Security-Covered Workers, by Socioeconomic Status
from Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 67, No. 3 (released April 2008)
by Hilary Waldron

This article presents an analysis of trends in mortality differentials and life expectancy by socioeconomic status for male Social Security-covered workers aged 60 or older. Mortality differentials, cohort life expectancies, and period life expectancies by average relative earnings are estimated. Period life expectancy estimates for the United States are also compared with those of other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

Trends in Mortality Differentials and Life Expectancy for Male Social Security–Covered Workers, by Average Relative Earnings
ORES Working Paper No. 108 (released October 2007)
by Hilary Waldron

This study presents an analysis of trends in mortality differentials and life expectancy by average relative earnings for male Social Security–covered workers aged 60 or older. Mortality differentials, cohort life expectancies, and period life expectancies by average relative earnings are estimated. Period life expectancy estimates for the United States are also compared with those of other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. In general, for birth cohorts spanning the years 1912–1941 (or deaths spanning the years 1972–2001 at ages 60–89), the top half of the average relative earnings distribution has experienced faster mortality improvement than has the bottom half. The sample is expected to be selectively healthier than the general population because of a requirement that men included in the sample have some positive earnings from ages 45 through 55. This requirement is expected to exclude some of the most at-risk members of the U.S. population because of the strong correlation between labor force participation and health.

Heterogeneity in Health and Mortality Risk Among Early Retiree Men
ORES Working Paper No. 105 (released May 2004)
by Hilary Waldron

Conventional wisdom holds that the majority of early retirees are in good health and that only a minority are in poor health. This wisdom is based on examinations of levels of health among the early retiree population. In contrast, this paper looks at both the health and mortality risk of early retirees relative to the health and mortality risk of age 65 retirees. This paper finds substantial heterogeneity among early retirees in health and mortality risk related to the age at which they are entitled to Social Security benefits. Early retirees consist of a group in extremely poor health, a group with health equal to age 65 retirees, and a group with health in between. The majority of early retirees are in poorer health and have higher mortality risk than age 65 retirees, and only a minority have health and mortality risk as good as that of age 65 retirees.

The Hazard of Mortality Among Aging Retired- and Disabled-Worker Men: A Comparative Sociodemographic and Health Status Analysis
from Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 57, No. 3 (released July 1994)
by John L. McCoy, Howard M. Iams, and Timothy Armstrong
Testing the Predictive Power of a Proportional Hazards Semi-Markov Model of Postentitlement Histories of Disabled Male Beneficiaries
ORES Working Paper No. 29 (released November 1982)
by John C. Hennessey

In the Disability Amendments of 1980 (P.L. 96-265), Congress mandated that certain experiments be carried out which are designed to encourage disabled beneficiaries to return to work and save trust fund monies. A research plan has been developed which would offer alternative program provisions, experimentally, to different samples of beneficiaries. An observation period of three to four years will be possible before a report to Congress must be written. However, a period of this length is not sufficient to observe, fully, the postentitlement experience of disabled beneficiaries. In order to estimate the long run effects of the experiments, a method is needed which can project postentitlement behavior beyond the observation period.

This paper tests the ability of proportional hazards semi-Markov model to make accurate predictions in this type of setting. The data are divided into two segments: the first 14 calendar quarters and the last 16 quarters. Various types of rate functions including proportional hazards rate functions are estimated on the first segment, then projected over the entire 30 quarters and compared to the actual data. The proportional hazards rate functions are then used in a simulation to estimate monthly benefit cost to the social security disability trust fund over the last 16 quarters, using an age-dependent, absorbing, semi-Markov model. The model does a very good job of capturing the dynamics of the process and should prove quite useful as one of the major components in an analysis of the Work Incentive Experiments.

Work Experience and Earnings of Middle-Aged Black and White Men, 1965–71
from Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 43, No. 12 (released December 1980)
by Julian Abbott
Social Security and the Labor Supply of Aged Men: Evidence From the U.S. Time Series
ORES Working Paper No. 21 (released December 1980)
by Louis Esposito and Michael D. Packard

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of the social security system on the labor supply of aged men using U.S. time series data for the period 1947 to 1975. The specific phenomena to be explained is the dramatic decrease in the labor supply of aged men during this period. Between 1947 and 1975, the annual labor force participation rate of men 65 and over decreased from 47.8 percent to 21.7 percent—a decrease of 55 percent. In terms of annual hours worked per capita for men 65 and over, there was a decrease from about 880 hours to 312 hours during this period—a decrease of 65 percent. The specific focus of the analysis will be on the relative importance of social security in explaining this decrease in labor supply.

Early Labor-Force Withdrawal of Men: Participants and Nonparticipants Aged 58–63
from Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 37, No. 8 (released August 1974)
by Karen Schwab
Covered Employment and the Age Men Claim Retirement Benefits
from Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 37, No. 4 (released April 1974)
by Julian Abbott
Why Men Stop Working At or Before Age 65: Findings from the Survey of New Beneficiaries
from Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 34, No. 6 (released June 1971)
by Virginia P. Reno
Work Experience of Men Claiming Retirement Benefits, 1966
from Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 32, No. 8 (released August 1969)
by Lenore E. Bixby and E. Eleanor Rings
Interindustry Labor Mobility Among Men, 1957–60
from Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 29, No. 9 (released September 1966)
by Lowell E. Gallaway
Retirement Patterns Among Aged Men: Findings of the 1963 Survey of the Aged
from Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 27, No. 8 (released August 1964)
by Erdman Palmore
Foreign Provisions for the Dependents of Mobilized Men
from Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 4, No. 4 (released April 1941)
by Marianne Sakmann