Research
Research
In 1983, the United States reformed its Social Security system by raising the Full Retirement Age (FRA), permanently reducing benefits for those who claimed earlier. My dissertation comprises three essays that address a gap in the literature by moving beyond the well-studied effects of this reform on claiming behavior and retirement timing to examine its broader impacts on individuals and families. The first chapter examines how FRA increases affect unemployment rates and exit probabilities among men, using monthly data from the Current Population Survey (CPS). It also assesses spillover effects on the Unemployment Insurance (UI) system, asking whether more generous state UI benefits lead to higher unemployment or longer spells as individuals bridge the gap to FRA. The second chapter draws on the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to investigate the reform’s broad health effects among men and women—including mental health, cognition, and functional limitations—in both the short and long term. The third chapter, also using the HRS, explores the work–caregiving trade-off for those with a higher FRA, analyzing how delayed claiming and retirement affect the time and financial support devoted to helping family members, including spouses, aging parents, and grandchildren.
Halim Yoon. “The Effect of the Increase in Social Security’s Full Retirement Age on Unemployment among Older Adults” (Accepted at the Journal of the Economics of Ageing)
Inhoe Ku, Soohyun Kim, Halim Yoon. (2024). Small cash transfers to older people: do they reduce poverty? Ageing & Society, 45(8), 1683-1701. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X24000473
Jiyoung Kang, Sunyu Ham, Halim Yoon. (2022). “Market Economies and Precarious Work: Comparative Perspective on Work Trajectories in USA, Germany and Korea”, Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies, vol. 53(4), pp. 55-87. (Korean)
Halim Yoon, Baegui Hong. (2020). “Is working life instability of middle-aged men getting generalized in Korea? Comparison of work trajectories between two cohorts”, Social Welfare Policy, 47(2), pp. 31-58 (Korean)
Halim Yoon. “The Impact of the Increase in the Social Security’s Full Retirement Age on Cognition of Older Adult” (Under review)
Emily Wiemers, Halim Yoon, and Dongmei Zuo. "Cognitive Decline and Consumption Change" (Under review)
Emily Wiemers, Halim Yoon, I-Fen Lin, Janecca Chin, Judith A. Seltzer, and V. Joseph Hotz. “The Health of Older Frontline Workers Following the Pandemic” (Under review)
Halim Yoon. “The Long-term Mental Health Impact of Increasing Social Security’s Full Retirement Age”
Jiyoung Kang, Sunyu Ham, and Halim Yoon. “Unequal paths, unequal health? Labor Market Trajectories and Self-rated Health in the U.S., Germany, and Korea.”