Urban Institute

About: Urban Institute is a nonprofit organization based out in Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Medicaid & Population. The organization has 927 authors who have published 2330 publications receiving 86426 citations.

Family, Public Policy, and Retirement Decisions: Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract: of 1998 Form 5500 Annual Reports.” Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved from http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/PDF/1998pensionplanbulletin.pdf Pienta, Amy M. 2003. “Partners in Marriage: An Analysis of Husbands’ and Wives’ Retirement Behavior.” Journal of Applied Gerontology 22 (3): 340-58. Rogowski, Jeannette and Lynn Karoly. 2000. “Health Insurance and Retirement Behavior: Evidence From the Health and Retirement Survey.” Journal of Health Economics 19 (4): 529-39. Johnson / Introduction 151

Six Tax Laws Later: How Individuals’ Marginal Federal Income Tax Rates Changed between 1980 and 1995

Abstract: We examine the evolution of marginal federal income tax rates from 1980 to 1995 using panel and crosssectional data. Marginal rates fell dramatically for most taxpayers. Whereas in 1980 three-quarters of taxpayers faced statutory tax rates above 15 percent, less than one-quarter of taxpayers were in that situation in 1995. Individuals’ tax rates also rose and fell due to life-cycle changes in income. Young people (age 30 to 44) were twice as likely to experience tax rate increases as older taxpayers. Nonetheless, the majority of taxpayers in every age group experienced rate reductions. The large marginal tax rate cuts in 1981 and 1986 clearly dominate life-cycle effects.

Medicare and Medicaid spending trends and the deficit debate.

Abstract: Are proposed major structural changes to Medicare and Medicaid really necessary to create sustainable spending growth? Projections based on recent trends in per-enrollee spending suggest that the answer is no.

A Renter or Homeowner Nation

Abstract: This article performs an exercise in which we identify the potential impact of key drivers of home ownership rates on home ownership outcomes by 2050. We take no position on whether these key determinants in fact will come about. Rather we perform an exercise in which we test for their impact. We demonstrate the result of shifts in three key drivers for home ownership forecasts: demographics (projected from the census), credit conditions (reflected in the fast and slow scenarios), and rents and housing cost increases (based on California). Our base case average scenario forecasts a decrease in home ownership to 57.9 percent by 2050, but alternate simulations show that it is possible for the home ownership rate to decline from current levels of around 64 percent to around 50 percent by 2050, 20 percentage points less than at its peak in 2004. Projected declines in home ownership are about equally due to demographic shifts, continuation of recent credit conditions, and potential rent and house price increases over the long term. The current and post WW II normal of two out of three households owning may also be in our future: if credit conditions improve, if (as we move to a majority-minority nation) minorities' economic endowments move toward replicating those of majority households, and if recent rent growth relative to income stabilizes.