NB21-06: Perceptions about Social Security and Behavior: Evidence from a Joint Survey of Spouses

This project explores perceptions and misperceptions about Social Security, their effect on expected retirement behavior, and how perceptions and expectations relate across spouses in the same household. The study will be conducted as a panel survey and randomized experiment in a representative sample of married couples. We first establish the correlational relationship between beliefs about both own and spousal future benefits and intended retirement-related behaviors of both spouses. To establish a causal link between beliefs and behavior, we re-elicit information about beliefs and expected behavior, after providing information about future Social Security benefits, similar to the information provided in the Social Security Statement. To better understand the relationships across spousal perceptions and expectations, we randomly select some respondents to receive benefit information for one spouse only, while others receive information for both spouses.