The Impact of Later Retirement Ages on Aggregate Household Savings and Saving Rates: An Analysis of OECD Countries

As a result of population aging, governments of many OECD countries have begun to implement policies to increase average retirement ages in an attempt to alleviate some of the Â…nancial strain in supporting retirees. This paper explores the effect that later retirement ages have on aggregate household saving rates, both on a theoretical and empirical level. Using a two-wave panel of OECD countries, the results show that later retirement ages have the effect of decreasing aggregate household saving rates. We show that it is likely that this corresponds to a decrease in household saving. In addition, it appears that it is increases in female retirement ages that is driving this result.