Population forecasts are crucial for many social, political and economic decisions. Officialpopulation projections rely in general on deterministic models which use different scenariosfor future vital rates to indicate uncertainty. However, this technique shows substantialweak points such as...

This research suggests that a Darwinian evolution of entrepreneurial spirit played asignificant role in the process of economic development and the dynamics of inequality withinand across societies. The study argues that entrepreneurial spirit evolved non-monotonicallyin the course of human...

Unlike in many other transition countries, where the gender pay gap has remained stable while female employment rates have reduced, in the case of Belarus women activity rate has been practically unchanged despite an increase in the gender pay gap. This paper investigates why this is the case by...

In the past decade, Switzerland has experienced a large increase in the number ofindividuals that went into early retirement. This paper takes a look at the determinants of earlyretirement using data from the 2002 Swiss Labor Force Survey that contains an interestingmodule on this topic...

We study the effects of demographic shocks and changes in the pension system on themacroeconomic performance of an advanced small open economy. An overlappinggenerationsmodel is constructed which includes a realistic description of the mortalityprocess. Individual agents choose their optimal...

Theory predicts that mandated employment protections may reduce productivity by distortingproduction choices. Firms facing (non-Coasean) worker dismissal costs will curtail hiringbelow efficient levels and retain unproductive workers, both of which should affectproductivity. These theoretical...

A deferred annuity typically includes an option-like right for thepolicyholder. At the end of the deferment period, he may either choose toreceive annuity payouts, calculated based on a mortality table agreed to atcontract inception, or receive the accumulated capital as a lump sum.Considering...

Using data for six OECD countries, this paper studies the effect of macroeconomic conditions on the mortality index kt in the well-known Lee-Carter model. Significant correlations are found with real GDP growth rates in Australia, Canada, and the United States, and with unemployment rate changes...

This paper contributes to the already vast literature on demography-induced internationalcapital flows by examining the role of labor market imperfections and institutions. We setup atwo-country overlapping generations model with search unemployment, which we calibrateon EU15 and US data. Labor...

Switzerland has one of the highest employment rates of older individuals amongindustrialized countries. Nevertheless, in the past decade, Switzerland has experienced amarked trend toward early retirement. This study analyzes the motives of early retirement inSwitzerland in the 1990s...