Research
U.S. Caregiving System Leaves Significant Unmet Needs Among Aging Adults
Policy Note | America’s eldercare system relies on families to provide care to aging adults, leaving those without family or wealth particularly vulnerable to having their care needs go unmet. 8.3 million people, or 42 percent of adults who have difficulty with tasks like getting dressed, using the toilet, or preparing meals did not receive any help in 2020 (the latest data available). Older adults who do not get the care they need face higher negative health outcomes and disability levels....
Policy Note | The Social Security benefit structure penalizes people who claim before age 70. Yet over one-fifth of eligible people claim before their full retirement age (age 67 for those born in 1960), and over 90 percent claim before the maximum age of 70, resulting in reduced monthly benefits. While many claim early out of necessity, financial advisors often recommend to those with retirement savings to spend down their savings before tapping into Social Security to increase their lifetime monthly benefit. However, few people have professional advisors. A Social Security Bridge option that is formalized, accessible, and easy to understand would allow beneficiaries to boost monthly benefits and help protect against downward mobility in retirement. This bridge, while important for many, is not a relevant for those with little to no retirement savings. Thus, we also advocate for increasing the Social Security minimum benefit to ensure adequate lifetime retirement income for the over 63 million Americans who will retire without any retirement savings.
Working Paper | Social Security “Catch-Up” contributions would allow workers to contribute an additional 3.1 percent of salary, starting at age 50, in return for enhanced benefits. The program would modestly reduce defacto elderly poverty and reduce the Social Security shortfall in the short run and be approximately actuarially neutral over 75 years.
Book Review | Warmth: Coming of Age at the End of Our World, Daniel Sherrell
The subject of Warmth, written by a 26-year-old as a letter to his unborn child, is the climate crisis. But the climate crisis is never referred to by name. Instead, it is called “The Problem.” And though The Problem animates the book, Warmth is also a memoir—a book about memory, justice, and the future.
The economy-climate interaction and an appropriate mitigation policy for climate protection have been treated in various types of scientific modeling. This paper focuses on the seminal work by Nordhaus on the economy-climate link and extends that model to include optimal policies for mitigation, adaptation, and infrastructure investment studying the dynamics of the transition to a low fossil-fuel economy.
Working Paper | This paper assesses the effects of dominant currency shocks (strong US dollar) on emerging markets by studying exchange market pressure (EMP) or foreign exchange (FX) liquidity, GDP growth, external debt, and inflation.
Paper | This paper highlights the role of credit performance in shaping economic performance and sheds new light on both the Brazilian boom in the 2000s and the economic contraction since 2015. Its results suggest that an active stance on public credit would have been instrumental in speeding up the economic recovery.
The green bond market is emerging as an impactful financing mechanism in climate change mitigation efforts. The effectiveness of the financial market for this transition to a low-carbon economy depends on attracting investors and removing financial market roadblocks.
