Slavov Studying Social Security Claiming & Later Life Outcomes For Widows
Sita Nataraj Slavov, Professor of Public Policy, Schar School of Policy and Government, is examining Social Security claiming and later life outcomes for widows.
Specifically, she is investigating the impact of primary earners’ Social Security claiming decisions on the later-life outcomes of widowed secondary earners.
She will use difference-in-differences and event study models to examine how the income, labor supply, wealth, and poverty risk of secondary earners change upon widowhood.
As part of her main analysis, she will explore how the impact of widowhood on these outcomes varies by the initial Social Security claiming age of the deceased primary earner.
This research has important implications for retirement security because widowed older women face a relatively high risk of poverty. They are also more likely to be secondary earners who receive Social Security survivor benefits following the death of their spouses.
Slavov received $67,000 from the University of Pennsylvania for this research. Funding began in Oct. 2024 and will end in Sept. 2025.
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