National Association of Business Economics Honors Gad Levanon and Ben Cheng for Paper on Retirement

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Sep 15, 2011, 12:00 ET

NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Association of Business Economics (NABE) this week named The Conference Board economists Gad Levanon and Ben Cheng winners of the 2011 Edmund A. Mennis Contributed Paper Award for their paper "U.S. Workers are Delaying Retirement: Who and Why, and Implications for Businesses." Levanon delivered the paper at NABE's annual meeting, held September 10 to 13 in Dallas, and it will also be published in an upcoming issue of the quarterly journal Business Economics.

The authors found that a trend of delaying retirement began as early as the mid-1990s, and has accelerated since the beginning of the latest recession, continuing into the first four months of 2011. Within this overall trend, significant variation exists across socioeconomic groups, industries, and occupations. In particular, the paper uses The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Survey to measure the impact of home prices and labor market conditions on retirement decisions, finding that workers in households that experienced labor loss/compensation cuts and significant declines in home prices were most likely to plan to delay retirement. Accordingly, workers from states that suffered large declines in home prices and high unemployment are likely to see the largest delays in retirement age. Levanon and Cheng conclude with a discussion of potential economic and business implications of their findings.

"The recognition for Gad and Ben's work is richly deserved," said Rebecca Ray, managing director of Human Capital research. "Their paper and related work in 2011 reflect the growing capability of The Conference Board to produce top-quality research on changing labor markets, which will have major implications for business and society at large."

The Conference Board Economics Program Working Paper Series:
"U.S. Workers are Delaying Retirement: Who and Why, and Implications for Businesses"
http://www.conference-board.org/publications/publicationdetail.cfm?publicationid=2000

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