Research
High rents increasingly becoming a driver of financial fragility for low-income older households
Policy Note | In the United States, high overall rates of home ownership among households aged 55–64 obscure a vital reality. Many low-income older households risk financial fragility because they are renters and high rent burdens inhibit their ability to save for emergencies. Even middle- and high-income households who own their own homes risk housing-related financial fragility due to high mortgage debt. Overall rates of financial fragility, which include non-housing debt and emergency...
Policy Note | Unpaid care work — the vast majority of such work in the United States — is primarily shouldered by economically vulnerable people. The costs associated with unpaid care work compound existing economic insecurity, leading to higher rates of poverty in old age. It is essential to support informal caregivers by recognizing caregiving as work and expanding their access to social safety net programs and providing paid family care leave.
Policy Note | Up to 40 percent of middle-income workers are at risk of downward mobility into poverty or near-poverty in retirement because of an inefficient retirement system that disproportionately benefits those with high incomes. Universal retirement accounts and providing workers with more equitable and better targeted tax incentives are among the best methods to supplement Social Security and prevent downward mobility in retirement.
This paper explores how climate damage affects the long-run evolution of the economy.
One-third of older workers have neither retirement savings through a 401(k) or IRA, nor a defined benefit (DB) pension.
The number of earnings shocks people experience - job loss, divorce, health emergencies, etc - differs by income level, contributing to inequality in retirement wealth.
This presentation shows how Washington's residents will face increasing downward mobility in retirement.
About a quarter of people with long-term care insurance let their policies lapse before they die.
This paper finds that negative economic shocks cause 401(k) contribution behavior to react in ways consistent with reactions to fear and past trauma.
