1. By Nyce, Scheiber, Shoven, Slavov and Wise Discussion by Katie Carman
Social Security and Defined Benefit Pension Payout Choices: Evidence from a Survey of Retirees
By Nyce, Scheiber, Shoven, Slavov and Wise
Discussion by Katie Carman

2. Preliminary Results
Nyce et al presents the results from a recent survey of retirees with retiree health insurance
Investigates reasons behind timing of social security claiming and lump sum vs annuity payouts for DB pensions
Early glimpse at data
Mostly bivariate analysis

3. A few small suggestions
It would be helpful to test whether differences are significant
Selected sample, perhaps compare to HRS
Might be helpful to code up responses for “other”– especially for how people paid for living expenses between retirement and claiming where 56% chose other
For DB pensions: Did those who picked lump sum have particularly small DB pensions?

4. Months elapsed between stopping work and claiming benefits
Might be helpful to look at age of claiming here– especially age 62
And age of retirement

5. Familiarity with benefits of delay and the benefit claiming
They find that people who delayed are more likely to be familiar with benefits of delay
May have learned about benefits because they delayed– not delayed because they knew of benefits

6. Do people now believe that they should have delayed claiming
They find that people who claimed early were more likely to say “if they were contemplating retirement today, they would delay claiming”
Would be helpful to look at this by age, or focus only on those born after 1943
The longer one lives, the greater the benefit actually accrued from delay
The value of hindsight

7. Strength and Limitations
Insight into why people retired and claimed when then did
BUT
It’s all measured after the retirement and claiming decisions
Focus on outcomes

8. Possible future directions
Does satisfaction with timing of claiming relate to
The reason given for timing of claiming
Health

9. More ideas They present results from only 1 of 4 surveys
Do early claimers report
More health problems
Lower life satisfaction
Lower satisfaction with their financial situation

10. Thank you!