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on Economics of Ageing |
| By: | Kyrre Stensnes and Nils Martin Stølen (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | A much higher old-age dependency ratio, together with more generous pension benefits, will lead to a substantial increase in the future public pension expenditures burden in Norway. A pension reform implemented from 2010 will imply a shift to a quasi-actuarial system, seeking to neutralise the expenditure effect of further growth in life expectancy and strengthen ties between former earnings and pension benefits. Labour supply will be stimulated by lowering implicit tax rates and by aligning the social and private costs of early retirement. Using a large dynamic microsimulation model we find that the reform will stimulate labour supply and reduce the future tax burden, but also increase inequality in the benefits received by old age pensioners. |
| Keywords: | Pension reform; social security; retirement; pension expenditures |
| JEL: | H53 H55 J26 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:524&r=age |
| By: | T. Schirle (Wilfrid Laurier University) |
| Abstract: | This paper seeks to explain the substantial increases in older men’s labour force participation rates that have been observed since the mid-1990s. Using data from the U.S. March Current Population Survey, the Canadian Labour Force Survey, and the U.K. Labour Force Survey, I investigate the hypothesis that husbands treat the leisure time of their wives as complementary to their own leisure at older ages. I exploit the cohort effects driving recent increases in older women’s participation rates to identify the effect of a wife’s participation decision on her husband’s participation decision. Given this complementarity in leisure time, a large portion of the increase in older men’s participation rates may be explained as a response to the recent increases in older women’s participation in the labour force. The methodology of Dinardo, Fortin, and Lemieux (1996) is used to decompose the changes in older married men’s participation rates, demonstrating that increases in wives’ participation in the labour force can explain roughly one quarter of the recent increase in participation in the U.S., almost one half of the recent increase in participation in Canada, and roughly one third of the recent increase in the U.K. Older men’s educational attainment is also an important factor explaining recent increases in participation, yet cannot be expected to drive further increases in participation rates. In contrast, expected increases in older wives’ participation over the next decade are expected to drive further increases in older men’s participation rates. |
| Keywords: | Labour force participation; leisure complementarity |
| JEL: | J21 J22 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wlu:wpaper:eg0045&r=age |
| By: | T. Schirle (Wilfrid Laurier University) |
| Abstract: | Using longitudinal data from the Canadian Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, I use an option value framework to examine the effects of health and employer provided pensions on retirement decisions. This study fills existing gaps in the literature by jointly modeling the impact of financial incentives and health on the retirement decisions of Canadians. The results indicate that both factors have substantial and significant effects on retirement, as having poor health increases the likelihood of entering retirement by up to 25 percentage points. Given the longitudinal aspect of the data, I am also able to address several identification issues discussed in the literature. The results corroborate previous evidence regarding the relative importance of attenuation and justification bias in self-reported health measures. The results also confirm U.S. and European evidence that employer-provided pensions and health are significant determinants of retirement. |
| Keywords: | Retirement; Private Pensions; Health |
| JEL: | J26 I10 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wlu:wpaper:eg0046&r=age |
| By: | Laura Juarez (Centro de Investigacion Economica (CIE), Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM)) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effect of a generous demogrant for the elderly that started in 2001 in Mexico City on the labor supply and time use of the elderly and of non-elderly family members who live with them. Using data for the period 2000-2004 and a triple differences approach, I find that prime-age women reduce both their housework and market work time significantly, but only if they live with an age-qualifying woman in a poor neighborhood after the program started. In contrast, the program seems to have no significant effect on the time use of prime-age men. My results suggest that some of the public resources devoted to the elderly could actually spill over to other age groups, especially in countries where extended families are common, and that the gender of the potential beneficiary matters for outcomes. |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cie:wpaper:0706&r=age |
| By: | Laura Juarez (Centro de Investigacion Economica (CIE), Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM)) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a recent demogrant for the elderly in Mexico City to estimate the e¤ect of an exogenous increase in the income of older individuals on the amount of private transfers they receive. My results show that not controlling for the endogeneity of income replicates the positive or small negative e¤ects of income on the amount of private transfers received obtained by previous work. In contrast, my instrumental variables strategy yields negative and signi.cant income e¤ects, not far from the minus one implied by altruistic models, suggesting that a change in the public resources for elderly could be neutralized by the response of private transfers. |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cie:wpaper:0707&r=age |