The number of data sources available for academic research on retirement economics and policy has increased rapidly in the past two decades. Data quality and comparability across studies have also improved considerably, with survey questionnaires progressively converging towards common ways of eliciting the same measurable concepts. Probability-based Internet panels have become a more accepted and recognized tool to obtain research data, allowing for fast, flexible, and cost-effective data collection compared to more traditional modes such as in-person and phone interviews. In an era of big data, academic research has also increasingly been able to access administrative records (e.g., Kostøl and Mogstad, 2014; Cesarini et al., 2016), private-sector financial records (e.g., Gelman et al., 2014), and administrative data married with surveys (Ameriks et al., 2020), to answer questions that could not be successfully tackled otherwise.

在过去的二十年中，可用于退休经济学和政策方面的学术研究的数据源数量迅速增加。跨研究的数据质量和可比性也有了很大提高，调查问卷逐渐趋向于引发相同可测量概念的通用方法。基于概率的Internet面板已成为获取研究数据的一种更广为接受和认可的工具，与面对面和电话采访等更传统的模式相比，它可以进行快速，灵活和具有成本效益的数据收集。在大数据时代，学术研究也越来越能够访问行政记录（例如Kostøl和Mogstad，2014年； Cesarini等人，2016年），私营部门的财务记录（例如Gelman等人）。（2014年）和行政数据与调查相结合（Ameriks等人，2020年），以回答否则无法成功解决的问题。