Pension Choices and Job Mobility in the UK

Using data from the British Household Panel Survey we analyze the impact of second tier pension scheme choices on job mobility within a discrete time hazard rate framework. We find that workers either offered and participating or offered and not participating to an occupational pension plan have significantly lower quit rates. However, once the endogeneity of pension scheme status is accounted for through an instrumental variable procedure, these coefficients are no more significant. Alternatively, the effect of pension portability losses on quits' hazards is never significant. The additional finding that workers participating to occupational pension plans are significantly less likely to quit for a non pension job can be interpreted as indirect evidence that they are in "good" jobs.