Labor Supply and the Old Age Assistance Program

摘要

Whether government benefits discourage labor supply by individuals 65 and older, and if so by how much, has attracted research interest since the creation of such transfer programs. In Government Old-Age Support and Labor Supply: Evidence from the Old Age Assistance Program (NBER Working Paper No. 22132), Daniel K. Fetter and Lee M. Lockwood provide new evidence from a large program expansion during the 1930s. They exploit newly available census data from 1940, which cover a large sample -- more than 6 million men aged 55-74 -- and also offer precise information on their places of residence.