Julie Zissimopoulos

As young people transition to adulthood, many rely on financial support from their parents to complete schooling and to live independently. Evidence suggests that there has been a gradual lengthening of the time young adults take to transition to adulthood. Young people attempting to move out of their parents’ home, complete college, or enter the workforce during the Great Recession faced uncertain economic times, increasing their need for financial support. At the same time, the income and wealth losses experienced by young adults’ parents may have disrupted transfers from them. We analyze the impact of large and unexpected declines in parents’ income and wealth during and immediately after the Great Recession on monetary transfers to their young adult children using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and the PSID Transition to Adulthood study. We find parents’ financial support of their young adult children declined during the Great Recession. The likelihood of receiving a transfer declined from 74% in 2005 to 57% in 2009. Parents’ loss of income was a factor in the amount of decrease but on average was relatively modest—a $10,000 parental income loss decreased transfers to their adult children by $109. However, parents experiencing large declines in income, those at the 75th and 95th percentile of income loss, reduced transfers to adult children by $1150 and $1700, respectively. Declines in parental transfers that reduce college completion rates, increase student loan debt and decrease likelihood of homeownership may have long term consequences for financial well-being.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) extracts a heavy societal toll. The value of medical advances that delay onset of AD could be significant. Using data from nationally representative samples from the Health and Retirement Study (1998–2008) and Aging Demographics and Memory Study (2001–2009), we estimate the prevalence and incidence of AD and the formal and informal health care costs associated with it. We use microsimulation to project future prevalence and costs of AD under different treatment scenarios. We find from 2010 to 2050, the number of individuals ages 70+ with AD increases 153%, from 3.6 to 9.1 million, and annual costs increase from $307 billion ($181B formal, $126B informal costs) to $1.5 trillion. 2010 annual per person costs were $71,303 and double by 2050. Medicare and Medicaid are paying 75% of formal costs. Medical advances that delay onset of AD for 5 years result in 41% lower prevalence and 40% lower cost of AD in 2050. For one cohort of older individuals, who would go on to acquire AD, a 5-year delay leads to 2.7 additional life years (about 5 AD-free), slightly higher formal care costs due to longer life but lower informal care costs for a total value of $511,208 per person. We find Medical advances delaying onset of AD generate significant economic and longevity benefits. The findings inform clinicians, policymakers, businesses and the public about the value of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of AD.

In the absence of a bilateral agreement for the portability and totalization of social security contributions between the United States and Mexico, this article examines the access to pension and health insurance benefits and employment status of older Mexican return migrants. We find that return migrants who have spent less than a year in the United States have a similar level of access to social security benefits as non‐migrants. Return migrants who have spent at least a year in the United States are less likely to have public health insurance or social security benefits, and could be more vulnerable to poverty in old age. These results inform the debate on a bilateral social security agreement between the United States and Mexico to improve return migrants' social security.

Résumé: En l'absence de contrat bilatéral entre les Etats‐Unis et le Mexique sur la portabilité et la totalisation des cotisations de sécurité sociale, le présent article examine l'accès aux prestations d'assurance‐maladie et de retraite et le statut d'emploi des travailleurs migrants mexicains. Nous avons constaté que les migrants qui rentrent chez eux après avoir passé moins d'un an aux Etats‐Unis bénéficient du même accès aux prestations de sécurité sociale que les non‐migrants. Ceux qui ont passé au moins un an aux Etats‐Unis ont en revanche moins accès à l'assurance‐maladie publique ou aux prestations de sécurité sociale et pourraient être davantage touchés par la pauvreté en vieillissant. Ces résultats sont destinés à alimenter le débat sur l'instauration d'un accord de sécurité sociale entre les Etats‐Unis et le Mexique, qui améliorerait la sécurité sociale des migrants rentrés chez eux.

Using newly collected data from the RAND American Life Panel, we examine potential explanations for the gender gap in financial literacy, including the role of marriage and who within a couple makes the financial decisions. Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition reveals the majority of the gender gap in financial literacy is not explained by differences in the characteristics of men and women—but rather differences in coefficients, or how literacy is produced. We find that financial decision making of couples is not centralized in one spouse although it is sensitive to the relative education level of spouses.