Engelhardt wins grant through the U.S. Social Security Administration
Gary V. Engelhardt, a professor of economics
and faculty associate with the Aging Studies Institute in the Maxwell School,
was awarded a grant from the U.S. Social Security Administration through the
Retirement and Disability Research Consortium.
The $100,000 grant will support Engelhardt’s
research into the role of housing equity as an asset for retirement planning
among older Americans. The project, titled “Intended Bequests and the Role of
Housing Equity as a Source of Income in Older Age,” will draw on data from 20
years of the Health and Retirement Study
to examine how the intention to make bequests limits the ability and
willingness of older individuals to tap into housing equity as a source of
retirement income. Additionally, Engelhardt will use this data to estimate how
intergenerational and other forms of housing transfer real estate from older to
younger generations as well as to study how changes in the structure of
bequests might affect the ability of housing wealth to affect retirement
incomes. Overall, Engelhardt’s project is expected to provide insights into how
the Social Security Administration will be able to supplement its existing
resources given expected long-term funding shortfalls.
Over the course of his career, Engelhardt has
contributed to various economics literatures, including housing behavior;
pensions, savings, and government policy; and Social Security, Medicare, and
retirement. He has received funding for this work from numerous agencies
including the U.S. Department of Labor, the Social Security Administration, the
Mortgage Bankers Association, the National Association of Realtors, and the
MacArthur Foundation. In 2014 Engelhardt won the American Real Estate Society’s
Prize for Best Paper on Senior Housing and his work has been featured in
national news outlets including the New
York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and
the Washington Post. He currently
serves as an associate editor of the Journal
of Pension Economics and Finance.
You can read more about Engelhardt’s project on the Center for Retirement Research website.
03/06/20