These are all great suggestions so thanks a lot for taking the time to respond.
I am going to be meeting with my thesis advisor within the next month and your responses have definitely given me some more interesting ideas to discuss.
MooreBonds, I like the idea of comparing different investment strategies and using historical data to determine which would most often lead to the earliest secure retirement.
Arebelspy, your excellent post on MMM (
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/07/08/early-retirement-cant-work-or-id-have-heard-of-it-before/), and the data presented in the MIT essay you referenced in particular, would actually go very nicely with your suggestion. It'd be interesting to factor increased productivity into the other variables you mentioned to determine what the standard retirement age
should be today, had we maintained a more reasonable (i.e. 1950s) level of consumption.
Displaced, I'll be sure to let you know if I need that data of yours! It would be pretty cool to plot out financial trajectories of people before and after their FI epiphany to determine how big of an impact it actually had on their financial lives.
Great stuff. Thanks again, guys!