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for the test of equality of means between the benefitsreceived by those claiming at age 65 in 1994 and all theother ages and time periods. Notice that in most caseseven if the benefit levels seem rather close, the levelsare significantly different from those received by theage-65 claimers of 1994. In the table we also see thatthe major change in the post-2000 period in the levelof benefits received by those claiming after age 65 ishighly significant. Furthermore, the level of benefitsgoes from being in a number of cases not significantlydifferent from the 1994 figure in the pre-2000 period, tosignificantly higher in 2000, to significantly lower in the2001–2004 period. This provides even clearer evidenceof the changes resulting from abolishing the earningstest, even in the presence of the more generous DRC.Table 6 provides a slightly different presentationof the test of statistical significance of differencesin means. In this case instead of using the level ofbenefits of those who claimed at age 65 in 1994, weuse the age-specific benefit levels as of 1994 to capturethe variation over time and by age in the level ofbenefits. The results are even more striking and showa clear divergence in the benefit levels over time forthose between ages 62 and 65 and those aged 66 orolder. Although the former group’s level of benefits areon the rise with increasingly statistically significantresults, the benefit level for late claimers is quite theopposite, and they are receiving much lower benefitsover time. The breaking point is the year 2000, suggestingin even more striking fashion the likely effectof the removal of the earnings test in the compositionof those claiming benefits after age 65 and the effectof the increase in the FRA in the composition of thoseclaiming early.Table 5.t-statistics of monthly Social Security retirement benefits: Benefit levels of those who claimed at age 65in 1994 used as comparisonAge 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 200462 -13.4805 -18.8968 -19.0375 -17.0784 -14.8081 -4.7205 -5.1620 -0.1537 5.7532 7.3185 -0.652163 -10.7386 -7.5375 -10.1821 -10.6993 -8.8523 -8.7318 -3.5480 -3.6254 -1.5533 1.8736 -2.730364 -3.5988 -3.5065 -2.9701 -5.2823 -5.9061 -3.5680 -2.6853 1.7147 3.3087 3.0444 2.856365 a -1.0169 -1.0494 -0.3811 -4.1109 -4.4248 -2.2722 1.7050 7.3361 9.1248 3.970366 1.6634 -1.8287 -0.0406 -1.5536 0.2626 0.8813 4.7070 -5.1937 -6.8857 -3.8777 -0.264467 -1.4849 -1.1258 -0.6589 -1.6699 -2.8487 0.3316 4.5750 -6.4220 -4.4015 -5.3363 -3.782768 -1.7849 -2.6873 -2.6178 -2.9188 -2.7914 -1.1290 2.3995 -5.0251 -7.3427 -7.5304 -6.926669 0.6060 0.5722 -2.7263 -2.5275 -2.8545 -1.0505 0.3075 -5.0385 -5.5857 -8.7639 -5.0799SOURCE: Authors' calculations using the OASDI public-use microdata file, 2004.NOTE: The shaded cells represent significance at the 5 percent level or higher.a. The corresponding cell from Table 3 is used as the comparison to test the equality of means with the rest of the cells in Table 3.Table 6.t-statistics of monthly Social Security retirement benefits: Age-specific benefit levels as of 1994 used ascomparisonAge 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 200462 a -5.0854 -4.7262 -3.0317 -0.8293 8.7489 8.2168 12.7966 17.8826 19.6706 12.692963 a 3.1878 0.3795 0.2090 1.8700 1.7511 6.8118 6.6375 8.2948 11.3359 6.905564 a -0.0142 0.4258 -1.9550 -2.3494 0.0167 0.8833 5.1546 6.6978 6.2461 6.077665 a -1.0169 -1.0494 -0.3811 -4.1109 -4.4248 -2.2722 1.7050 7.3361 9.1248 3.970366 a -3.4769 -2.0748 -3.2545 -1.4839 -1.1444 1.8398 -6.2997 -8.1969 -5.1407 -4.156867 a 0.2529 1.1169 -0.0669 -1.1116 2.3824 7.3587 -5.0108 -3.2678 -4.1064 -2.685468 a -1.0077 -0.4352 -0.6420 -0.5713 1.3613 5.8301 -3.1657 -5.3119 -5.5411 -4.875369 a -0.0380 -3.4901 -3.1597 -3.5718 -1.7969 -0.6406 -5.7073 -6.2444 -9.4584 -5.6763SOURCE: Authors' calculations using the OASDI public-use microdata file, 2004.NOTE: The shaded cells represent significance at the 5 percent level or higher. Bold type is used to emphasize the differences by agegroup.a. The corresponding cells from Table 3 are used as the comparison to test the equality of means with the rest of the cells, by age,in Table 3.86 Social Security Bulletin • Vol. 69 • No. 3 • 2009