Professor James Banks

In this paper we document significantly steeper declines in nondurable expenditures in the UK compared to the US, in spite of income paths being similar. We explore several possible causes, including different employment paths, housing ownership and expenses, levels and paths of health status, number of household members, and out-of -pocket medical expenditures. Among all the potential explanations considered, we find that those to do with healthcare—differences in levels and age paths in medical expenses—can fully account for the steeper declines in nondurable consumption in the UK compared to the US.

The authors provide new empirical evidence on the importance of defined contribution pension wealth in England, and the nature of annuitization decisions taken by older adults who retire with such sources of wealth.

The UK has enacted a number of reforms to the structure of disability benefits, including the introduction of Incapacity Benefit in 1995 and the replacement of Incapacity Benefit with Employment and Support Allowance from 2008. The authors bring together administrative and survey data over the period and highlight key differences in receipt of disability benefits by age, sex and health.

The authors document and explore significantly steeper declines in nondurable expenditures in the UK compared to the US, in spite of income paths being similar.

The UK has enacted a number of reforms to the structure of disability benefits, including the introduction of Incapacity Benefit in 1995 and the replacement of Incapacity Benefit with Employment and Support Allowance from 2008. The authors bring together administrative and survey data over the period and highlight key differences in receipt of disability benefits by age, sex and health.

This paper examines to what extent differences in employment rates across those in better and worse health in the UK can be explained by the availability of publicly-funded disability insurance and the financial incentives provided by other retirement income schemes.

Higher income is associated with greater well-being, but do income gains and losses affect well-being differently?

In this paper, we investigate the issue of partner selection in the health of individuals who are at least fifty years old in England and the United States.

We use data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing to document the effect of the financial crisis on those aged 50 and over in England

Financial crisis wealth losses and responses among older households in England

The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) is a panel study of a representative cohort of men and women living in England aged 550 years. It was designed as a sister study to the Health and Retirement Study in the USA and is multidisciplinary in orientation, involving the collection of economic, social, psychological, cognitive, health, biological and genetic data.