Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, we examine the association between cognition and financial outcomes among older American couples. We first investigate the relationship between couple members' cognitive ability and financial responsibility within the household. Our results suggest that differences in the level of cognitive ability play a major role in determining who is the household financial decision-maker, while changes in cognitive ability of both couple members over time only marginally modify such choice. Next, we study changes in financial wealth following pronounced declines in cognitive test scores of household members. We observe significant reductions in wealth among households whose financial decision-maker experiences such declines. Wealth reductions are less sizeable among those with pension/annuity income and receiving help with finances from their children.

中文翻译：

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老年认知能力下降和家庭财务决策。

利用健康与退休研究的数据，我们研究了美国老年夫妇的认知与财务结果之间的关联。我们首先调查夫妇成员的认知能力与家庭内经济责任之间的关系。我们的研究结果表明，认知能力水平的差异在决定谁是家庭财务决策者方面发挥着重要作用，而随着时间的推移，夫妻双方认知能力的变化只会略微改变这种选择。接下来，我们研究家庭成员认知测试分数显着下降后金融财富的变化。我们观察到，财务决策者经历过这种下降的家庭的财富显着减少。对于那些拥有养老金/年金收入并接受子女财务帮助的人来说，财富减少的幅度较小。