Sita Slavov on Social Security, Working Longer and Planning for Retirement

In this episode of Decoded, Aly Muhammad Dadwani sits down with Sita Slavov, a professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University who studies retirement, aging and Social Security. Sita has worked at the White House Council of Economic Advisers and at a think tank, and has testified before the Senate. It is Aly’s first solo episode as host.

The conversation starts with Sita’s cat, George Michael, and the Econ 5K, a virtual race run alongside the American Economic Association’s annual meeting where economists compete for artistic merit by running routes that sketch out economics graphs. From there, Sita explains why she sees an aging population as one of the biggest challenges society faces, and why, in her research with her mentor, she compares delaying Social Security to buying an annuity. She says it is a good deal for many people, especially higher earners in married couples, and explains why she is slow to call early claiming a mistake.

They also get into why she thinks younger workers should expect to work longer, what r-star is and why low interest rates and slow wage growth hit mid-career workers hardest, and why living mostly on Social Security can make sense for lifetime low earners but not for most college graduates. Sita talks through her research on why immigrants who arrive after 40 tend to retire later, how economists and politicians think differently when she has testified before the Senate, and what she says happens if Congress waits until the trust fund runs short in 2032.

The conversation ends on a question she thinks gets too little attention: beyond closing the funding gap, what should Social Security actually be for?Research and outreach by Panchu, Anubhav and Arif.

clarity before consensus.