To estimate the effects of large cuts in pensions on the age of first benefit receipt, we exploit two natural experiments in which such cuts affect a group of repatriated ethnic German workers. The pensions were cut by about 12%, yet, according to our regression discontinuity estimates based on...

The demographic change is posing many challenges for government budgets. In the face of a shrinking work force, keeping the number of workers and thus pension contributors at the highest possible level is a key economic policy goal. This could be achieved if people retire from the work force...

Die Alterung der deutschen Gesellschaft setzt das Rentensystem unter erheblichen Reformdruck. Simulationen für westdeutsche langjährig versicherte Männer zeigen, dass Anreize für einen späteren Renteneintritt das Rentensystem stabilisieren können. Die Einkommensverluste sind dabei geringer...

In several developed countries, the ageing process of the population may pose fiscal risks to the PAYG systems of public pensions. This paper studies the determinants of two forms of accessing retirement in Spain, either partial or full retirement. Our goal is to identify if social security...

The labor market in Denmark seems to follow the trend in a number of other countries of increasing labor force participation in the 60+ group. We analyze trends for the early retirement age interval 60-64 and for the age group 65-74 where people are eligible to a national social security program...

As a preliminary step, we first provide some new empirical evidence that labor market conditions affect retirement decisions at the individual level: unemployed people are more likely to retire. Our main objective in this paper is then to propose an equilibrium unemployment approach to...

This paper analyzes the labor market participation behavior of the elderly couples when a new option (early retirement) becomes available to the husband. Unlike other studies of household labor supply model, which assume that all the households follow the same decision making structure, we...

Models for non-cooperative as well as cooperative behavior of families are estimated on data from Norway from 1994 to 1998. The models aim at explaining labor supply behavior of married couples the first five months after the husband becomes eligible for early retirement, while the wife is not...

This paper simulates a set of proposed policies from the Norwegian pension reform within a structural dynamic model of health and retirement estimated on the Norwegian labour market data. The paper focuses on the two main elements of the reform, namely the new pension entitlement accrual rules...

This paper presents results on the effect of formal life-long learning on the decision to retire early. Specifically, I estimate an Option Value model based on individual employer-employee longitudinal data including comprehensive government co-sponsored training records dating back more than 30...