faculty_honigProfessor • Member of the Doctoral Faculty at CUNY’s Graduate Center

Ph.D. Economics, Columbia University, 1971
Fields: Labor Economics

Office:   HW 1531
Voice:   212-772-5400
Fax:      212-772-5398

Email:  mhonig@hunter.cuny.edu
CV (pdf)

Professor Honig joined the department in 1981 and served as Chair until 2013. She taught previously at the University of Illinois and Rutgers University. She is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, editor of the Social Insurance Research Network (SIRN) series, and has served on the advisory boards of the Michigan Retirement Research Consortium and the Brookdale National Fellowship Program. She has also served as co-director of research at International Longevity Center, a research and policy institution concerned with the implications of population aging.

Her research interests relate to the economics of aging and retirement, including the adequacy of saving for retirement and the labor supply effects of employer pensions and Social Security, demand for health insurance and other employment-based benefits, job loss among older workers, and household wealth accumulation. Her current research is supported by the U.S. Social Security Administration through a grant to the Michigan Retirement Research Consortium, University of Michigan.

Publications

Price and Spouse’s Coverage in Employee Demand for Health Insurance
(with I. Dushi)
American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings, 2003

How Demographic Change Will Drive Benefits Design
(with I. Dushi)
In Benefits for the Workplace of Tomorrow, Olivia S. Mitchell, David S. Blitzstein, Michael S. Gordon, and Judith F. Mazo (eds.)
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003

Minorities Face Retirement: Worklife Disparities Repeated?
In Forecasting Retirement Needs and Retirement Wealth, Brett Hammond, Olivia S. Mitchell, and Anna Rappaport (eds.)
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000

Charting the Productivity and Independence of Older Persons
(with C. Muller)
International Longevity Center Report. New York: International Longevity Center – USA, 2000

Married Women’s Retirement Expectations: Do Pensions and Social Security Matter?
American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings, 1998

Retirement
In Women’s Studies Encyclopedia
Westport CN: Greenwood Press, 1998

Labor Supply Effects of State Maternity Leave Legislation: Discussion
In Gender and Family Issues in the Workplace, Francine D. Blau and Ronald G. Ehrenberg, (eds.)
New York: Russell Sage, 1997

Responses to Social Security by Men and Women: Myopic and Far-sighted Behavior
(with Cordelia .W. Reimers)
Journal of Human Resources, 1996

Retirement Expectations by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender
The Gerontologist, 1996

Causes of Intercity Variation in Homelessness
(with Randall K. Filer)
American Economic Review, 1993

The Perceived Budget Constraint under Social Security
(with Cordelia W. Reimers)
Journal of Labor Economics, 1993

Policy Issues in Homelessness: Current Understanding and Directions for Research
(with Randall K. Filer)
New York: Manhattan Institute, 1990

Is It Worth Eliminating the Earnings Test?
(with Cordelia W. Reimers)
American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings, 1989

The Retirement Process in the United States: Mobility Among Full-Time Work, Partial Retirement, and Full Retirement
(with Cordelia W. Reimers)
In Redefining the Process of Retirement in an International Perspective, W. Schmahl (ed.)
Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1989

Discussion: ‘Efficiency Wages, Women’s Work and Comparable Worth,’ by Mark Aldrich and Robert Buchele
In Comparable Worth: Analyses and Evidence, M. Anne Hill and Mark R. Killingsworth (eds.)
Ithaca: ILR Press, 1989

Retirement, Re-Entry, and Part-time Work
(with Cordelia W. Reimers)
Eastern Economic Journal, 1987

Review: ‘The Economics of Women, Men, and Work,’ by Francine D. Blau and Marianne A. Ferber
Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 1987

Review: ‘The Reagan Record: An Assessment of America’s Changing Domestic Priorities.’ John L. Palmer and Isabel V. Sawhill (eds.)
Journal of the American Planning Association, 1986

Partial Retirement Among Women
Journal of Human Resources, 1985

‘True’ Age Profiles of Earnings: Adjusting for Censoring and for Period and Cohort Effects
(with Giora Hanoch)
Review of Economics and Statistics, 1985.

Partial Retirement as a Separate Mode of Retirement Behavior
(with Giora Hanoch)
Journal of Human Resources, l985

Discussion: The Older Work Force: Two Sides of the Coin
Proceedings: Columbia University Conference on Delayed Retirement, 1983

Retirement, Wages, and Labor Supply of the Elderly
(with Giora Hanoch)
Journal of Labor Economics, 1983

The Labor Market Behavior of Older People: A Framework for Analysis
(with Giora Hanoch)
In Aging: Social Change, James E. March (ed.), Academic Press, 1981

A General Model of Labor Market Behavior of Older Persons
(with Giora Hanoch)
Social Security Bulletin, 1980

Family Policy: Israel
(with Nira Shamai)
In Family Policy: Government and Families in Fourteen Countries, Sheila B. Kamerman and Alfred J. Kahn (eds.)
New York: Columbia University Press, 1978

The Labor Supply Curve Under Income Maintenance Programs
(with Giora Hanoch)
Journal of Public Economics, 1978

Work Disincentives in Israel
In Work Disincentives and Income Maintenance, The Institute for Social and Labour Research, Tel Aviv University, 1976

AFDC Payments, Recipient Rates, and Family Dissolution: A Reply
Journal of Human Resources, 1976

Work Disincentives in the Israeli Transfer System   (Hebrew with English Summary)
Social Security, Jerusalem, 1975

AFDC Payments, Recipient Rates, and Family Dissolution
Journal of Human Resources, 1974

The Impact of Welfare Payment Levels on Family Stability
Studies in Public Welfare, No.12, Part 1, Joint Economic Committee, U.S. Congress, 1973

Working Papers

Are 40l(k) Saving Rates Changing? Cohort/Period Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study
(with Irena Dushi), October 2007

Offers or Take-up: Explaining Minorities’ Lower Health Insurance Coverage
(with Irena Dushi), Hunter College Department of Economics Working Paper 412, August 2005

Household Demand for Health Insurance: Price and Spouse’s Coverage
(with Irena Dushi), Hunter College Department of Economics Working Paper 411, April 2005

Endogenous Pensions and Retirement Behavior
(with R.K. Filer), Hunter College Department of Economics Working Paper 410. 2005

Job Loss Among Older Workers, 1981-2001
(with M. Siegel and C. Muller)

The Changing Mix of Benefits over the Life Cycle
(with I. Dushi). International Longevity Center Working Paper, 2001

The Incidence of Job Loss: The Shift from Younger to Older Workers, 1981-1996
(with M. Siegel and C. Muller), International Longevity Center Working Paper, 2001