The odds increased significantly as windfalls grew -- about eight percent for every $100,000 inherited.

The findings also could apply to the recent downturn in the stock market, shedding light on whether some workers might wind up on the job longer because of deep, recession-driven losses in stock portfolios and other investments, the authors said.

'A negative shock to wealth has just the opposite effect of what we have in this study, so I expect that those losses are going to lead some people to work longer than they expected,' said Brown, who was a senior economic adviser to President George W. Bush in 2001-02.

These findings are slated for publication in the Review of Economics and Statistics.