Working Paper: NBER ID: w19511
Authors: Robert Clark; Olivia S. Mitchell
Abstract: Economic theory predicts that employer-provided retiree health insurance benefits crowd-out household wealth accumulation. Nevertheless, there is little research on the impacts of retiree health insurance on wealth accruals, so this paper utilizes a unique data file on three baseline cohorts from the Health and Retirement Study to explore how employer-provided retiree health insurance may influence net household wealth among public sector employees, where retiree healthcare benefits are still quite prevalent. We find that most full-time public sector employees who anticipate receiving employer-provided health insurance coverage in retirement save less than their private sector uncovered counterparts.
Keywords: retiree health insurance; public sector employees; wealth accumulation; retirement savings
JEL Codes: H75; I11; I18; I30
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Retiree health insurance (RHI) (J26) | household wealth accumulation (D14) |
| Retiree health insurance (RHI) (J26) | savings behavior (D14) |
| Retiree health insurance (RHI) (J26) | earlier retirement (J26) |
| earlier retirement (J26) | savings behavior (D14) |