Abstract

In the US and in OECD countries there is a wide gap in Social Security and pension benefits between men and women, mainly due to women's shorter careers, fewer market hours, lower wages and longer years in retirement. In the US there is no mandatory retirement age from the labor market and receiving Social Security retirement benefits (benefits) is possible while working. The main goal of this work is to estimate the optimal retirement age from the labor market and benefit claiming age for women in the US, taking into consideration gender differences in employment conditions.  

I construct a quantitative dynamic life-cycle model of consumption and labor-leisure allocations during working-age period, the claiming age of Social Security benefits and the retirement-age of women. I include in the model women-oriented child care costs to imitate working conditions of women. I calibrate the model to the US data, estimate the optimal retirement age and the optimal Social Security benefit claiming age of women for the 1945 and 1950 birth cohorts and I simulate the results given a 50% reduced child care costs. The preliminary model estimation fits the labor market participation in the data with 88%, on average. 

Preliminary model estimation results show that the optimal retirement age for women with low and medium human capital is lower than the actual, and is estimated below 60. The optimal retirement age for women with high human capital is higher than the actual and is estimated at 70. The optimal estimated benefit claiming age is 62 for most women, which is the eligibility age threshold. Preliminary counterfactual analysis shows that decreasing child care costs by 50% increases labor market participation of women with low human capital by at least 25%.

 Preliminary estimation results: optimal market hours,  retirement age and benefit claiming age for 1950 birth cohort.

5 human capital groups: HSD (High School Dropouts), HSG (High School Graduates), SC (Some College), CG (College Graduates), PC (Post College).

The goal of this work is to detect economical forces that drove sub-optimal occupational allocation of highly educated immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and to estimate the loss of productivity due to labor market frictions. During 1990-1995 approximately 685 thousands immigrated from the FSU to Israel, consisting 12.8% of working age population. This immigration was large in numbers and was highly educated twice as much as the native population. 

I constructed a quantitative model of occupational choice and using Israeli census data calibrated the parameters of the model to match occupational earnings and occupational participation shares of native Israelis and immigrants. The productivity loss of sub-optimal occupational allocation of highly educated immigrants is estimated at 21% of total estimated output during 1995-2008 due to occupational barriers of this group.

Simulation Results: Occupational Choices Shifts of Immigrants Given Their TFP's Similar to Natives.

Each worker is characterized by one of three talent levels (A-high, B-medium, C-low) in each occupation, except for home production. Occupations are denoted by 1-Academic, 2-Skilled, 3-Unskilled, 4-Home production

Works in Progress

• Optimal Retirement Age of Women in Israel

• Note - Cross-Entropy Method for Structural Estimation - A Practitioner's Guide, with Daniel Albuquerque, Tomer Ifergane and Yochai Gat