VRI Publications

John Ameriks, Joseph Briggs, Andrew Caplin, Matthew D. Shapiro, and Christopher Tonetti. Long-Term-Care Utility and Late-in-Life Saving. (Appendix.) Journal of Political Economy 128:6 (2020) 2375-2451. 128:6 (2020) 2375-2451.

John Ameriks, Gábor Kézdi, Minjoon Lee, and Matthew D. Shapiro. Heterogeneity in Expectations, Risk Tolerance, and Household Stock Shares: The Attenuation Puzzle. (Appendix.) Journal of Business and Economic Statistics 38 (2020) 633-646.

John Ameriks, Joseph Briggs, Andrew Caplin, Minjoon Lee, Matthew Shapiro, and Christopher Tonetti. Older Americans Would Work Longer If Jobs Were Flexible. (Appendix.) American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 12 (2020) 174-209.

John Ameriks, Andrew Caplin, Minjoon Lee, Matthew D. Shapiro, and Christopher Tonetti. Cognitive Decline, Limited Awareness, Imperfect Agency, and Financial Well-being. American Economic Review: Insights 5 (2023) 125-140. Appendix. Nontechnical summary: Center for Retirement Research at Boston College Brief (June 2023).

VRI Working Papers

John Ameriks, Joseph Briggs, Andrew Caplin, Matthew D. Shapiro, and Christopher Tonetti. 2016. Revised 2018. The Long-Term-Care Insurance Puzzle: Modeling and Measurement. .

Pamela Giustinelli and Matthew D. Shapiro, July 2019. Revised May 2021. SeaTE: Subjective ex ante Treatment Effect of Health on Retirement. (Appendix.)

John Ameriks, Andrew Caplin, Minjoon Lee, Matthew D. Shapiro, and Christopher Tonetti. 2015. Revised 2023. The Wealth of Wealthholders.
    Appendices:

1. VRI Sample Design. Explanations of the sampling strategy used for the VRI.
2. Account Sequence Example. A sequence of screen shots from the wealth section of the survey using a hypothetical respondent.
3. Definition of Concepts. Definition of concepts used for the VRI and how we measure them for the HRS and SCF for the comparisons between surveys.
4. Detailed Comparisons: VRI, HRS and SCF. Comparison of the surveys along various dimensions, including wealth, income and demographics.
5. Estimating Retirement/Wealth Relationship. Details about estimating the relationship between expected retirement time and annuitizable financial wealth.

VRI Technical Reports

John Ameriks, Joseph Briggs, Andrew Caplin, Matthew D. Shapiro, and Christopher Tonetti. 2016. Revised 2018. Long-term Care Model. Vanguard Research Initiative Technical Report

John Ameriks, Joseph Briggs, Andrew Caplin, Matthew D. Shapiro, and Christopher Tonetti. 2016. Revised 2018. Long-term Care Strategic Survey Questions. Vanguard Research Initiative Technical Report

Questionnaires

Vanguard Research Initiative. Survey 1. Wealth and portfolios. (August 2013).

Vanguard Research Initiative. Survey 2. Annuity and long-term care. (January 2014).

Vanguard Research Initiative. Survey 3. Family, bequests, and transfers. (August 2014).

Vanguard Research Initiative. Survey 4. Work and transition to retirement. (October 2015).

Vanguard Research Initiative. Survey 5. Wealth and portfolios. (August 2016).

Vanguard Research Initiative. Survey 6. Work and transition to retirement. (March 2018).

Vanguard Research Initiative. Survey 7. Cognitive decline, agency, and financial decisionmaking. (July 2020).

See Survey for more information.

Reports and Documentation

John Ameriks, Andrew Caplin, Minjoon Lee, Matthew D. Shapiro, and Christopher Tonetti. 2014. Vanguard Research Initiative: Survey 1 Documentation and Tabulations.

    Sections of Report:

1. Survey Development and Testing. Catalogue of steps taken prior to and during the Pilot survey to attain information relevant to Sample Survey 1.
2. Sample Design. Discussion of the screens and criterion used in selection of the sample, including relevant results tables.
3. Invitations and Survey Mechanisms. Descriptions of invitations goals, procedures, incentive mechanisms, and survey administration.
4. Response Analyses. Summaries of response rates analyzed over time, across types, and analysis of break-off during the survey.
5. Detailed Sample Characteristics. Detailed tabulations on demographics, income, financial wealth, etc.
6. Survey versus Administrative Data: Analysis by Account-type and Regression Analysis. Detailed comparison of survey and administrative wealth measures for subsets of assets and regression analysis for discrepancies between the two measures.
7. Use of Correction Mechanism: Regression Analysis. Estimating a linear probability model for making a correction to balances.
8. Alternative Approaches to Measuring Stock Share: Account-by-account versus Overall. Comparing distribution of stock share conditional on the type of question respondents answered.