A discussion of “Working after Retiring from Career Jobs” Authors: Robert L Clark, Robert G. Hammond, Melinda Sandler Morrill, and Aditi Pathak Discussant: Joanna N. Lahey Texas A&M and NBER

The Questions What are retirement strategies and patterns for workers in government jobs with DB pensions and retiree health insurance pre- retirement? What are bridge to retirement paths after leaving these jobs?

Why important? Government Policy – Benefit design – Return to work provisions – Predict supply of experienced workers Public Policy more generally – Effects of benefit design on return to work – Demand for return to work after benefit payout begins – Why are people (not) returning to work? (=> change benefits) Economic theory – Bridging to full retirement for people with DB pensions – Interactions of plan design with behavior

What they did Fielded two surveys with extensive questions on retirement plan expectations and choices, work expectations and choices, and retirement-related questions – Pre-retirement survey – Post-retirement survey (point-in-time) Merged surveys with administrative data

Findings: Summary statistics Preliminary work– results today are summary statistics and correlations from the two surveys connected to basic demographics – Current employees plan to retire relatively young – Most plan on working (part-time) post-retirement – Most of those who do not plan on working expect to have enough money to not need to or expect to be unable to find work – The younger the age of expected retirement, the more likely expectations for post-retirement work

Findings: Expected Retirement Regression results conditioning on other variables (including tenure) – Men expect to retire later (controlling for profession) – K-12 Teachers/Admin plan to retire 1 year earlier – Police/firefighters plan to retire 3 years earlier – Professors plan to retire.7 years later

Findings: Expected return to work Regression results conditioning on other variables – Later retirement age => lower probability return to work – Male => higher probability return to work – Professional degree => higher pr(return to work) – Working spouse => higher pr(return to work)

Findings: Survey of recent retirees 69% of retirees not currently working (not at odds with expectations– different group, point in time vs. the entire future) 14.4% working for government – 8.6% in same place – 5.8% in new place 16.4% working in private sector Of those not currently working, 61% unlikely to return to work

Findings: Recent retirees regressions Men: more likely to be working, less likely to be working in public sector, more likely to plan to return to work Married less likely to work MA less likely to work High account balances less likely to work TSERS more likely to work for public sector People with caregiving responsibilities less likely to work

Things to be careful of: Selection Who takes the surveys compared to population (standard sampling bias)?: compare to administrative records Who drops out of regressions because of missing data?: compare on non-missing data Who is excluded because of a priori decisions about work? – Not a panel-- be careful when comparing one survey to another – Especially tricky because of age dimension

More things to be careful about Correlations: Conditional vs. unconditional – Ex. Men are more likely to work, controlling for police/firefighter occupation – Ex. People whose spouses have good health are less likely to work, controlling for caregiving Small sample sizes for some populations – Ex. Men, professional degrees, # children? Be clear on details of plan rules – Is it replacement for Social Security or in addition to? (in addition) – TSERS has waiting period, income limits for re-employed

Extensions and new questions Future work will show responses merged with more detailed administrative data – Basic demographics (gender, DOB) – Employment history – Salary information – Benefit account information Additional survey questions not explored here – Choices made for plans, detailed $, detailed partner information, risk aversion etc.

Extensions: Benefit design TSERS has a lot of different payout options: How are these related to choices? – Joint and survivor benefits, different levels – Age 62 leveling prior to Soc Sec. – Can change mind if rehired and work for 3 additional years TSERS has defined limits to public re-employment – 6 month wait before re-employment – Earnings limitations = max (50% of 12 mo salary, $31380)

Extensions: Retirement Patterns Follow the money – Where does retirement $ come from – Social Security claiming – Effect of homeownership – Financial fragility (2K question) – Risk aversion Follow the work cycle – How long not working? – Paths, transitions, # jobs Follow the spouse: Joint retirement

Extensions: Retirement Patterns II Is this a story about teachers substitute teaching? – 70-80% of participants are in TSERS What specific jobs do re-employed do, in public and private sectors? – New careers or related jobs? How do different professions behave differently? – Physical demands? – Ages of retirement? – Outside opportunities?

Thank you!