Work, Retire, Repeat

“Ghilarducci presents a grim view of the current ominous realities of retirement in the United States and offers recommendations for improvement… She shares true stories of people locked into jobs not because they love to work but because they must, and her meticulous research analyzes how working longer does little to improve retirement security and inadequate pensions… This highly recommended book focuses on middle- and lower-income people who do not have millions in their retirement accounts and who are particularly concerned about the retirement possibilities that their children and grandchildren will have.” * Library Journal (starred review) *“Ghilarducci argues convincingly that how long people need to work is more about who has power in society than anything else.” – Peter Coy * The New York Times *”[Work, Retire, Repeat] examines the wide array of realities older adults face as they retire or find themselves working later in life. It’s a meaningful, engaging, and accessible book that deals with subject matter that will only increase in importance… . Written with passion, precision and prescription.” – Raymond A. Jetson * Generations Now *Named one of the Best Summer Books of 2024. “A powerful rejoinder to the view that, in an aging society, people must work longer and retire later.” – Martin Wolf * The Financial Times *“Work, Retire, Repeat makes valuable points in assessing attempts to push back retirement for all Americans.” * City Journal *“America’s retirement system is failing too many people… .Economist Teresa Ghilarducci, in her new (highly recommended) book discusses reform proposals, including several she co-authored…It’s high time for at least one of these well-designed and affordable ideas to become law… .Ghilarducci offers a potential blueprint for action for policymakers and citizens.” – Chris Farrell * Star Tribune *”[Work, Retire, Repeat] is a wake-up call to academics and policymakers to take the well-being of low-income older workers seriously and a provocative starting point for what better policy toward senior citizens might entail.” – Andrew Samwick * Journal of Economic Literature *“The book is for the growing number of people in the public and policy community who are worried about their retirement and engaged in the renewed debate about Social Security and Medicare.” * New Books Network *“Retirement inequality is on the rise and is causing anger and democratic resentment among working classes in many countries. This fascinating book puts the central issue of retirement inequality at the forefront of political discussion. A must read.” – Thomas Piketty | author of “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”“Work, Retire, Repeat shows the risks and decisions facing older workers today and the economic forces this complexity creates. Ghilarducci’s analysis is packed with facts and original ideas for both change and how to live with today’s system in the meantime. Work, Retire, Repeat may prove to be as influential as Stuart Chase’s 1932 book A New Deal.” – Robert Shiller | recipient of the 2013 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics“Compared to workers in equally wealthy countries, Americans work much longer. We work more hours per week, take fewer vacations, and look ahead to a late, financially insecure retirement. Ghilarducci convincingly and heartrendingly shows that so many of us who find ourselves unable to afford to retire didn’t plan for this, but rather find out after the fact that others had punched holes in the financial buckets we thought were being filled for our retirement.” – Brad DeLong | author of “Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century”

Teresa Ghilarducci is professor of economics and policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York City. She serves as the director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis and the New School’s Retirement Equity Lab (ReLab). She also writes a regular column for Forbes’s #RetireWell blog.