Does raising the early retirement age increase employment of older workers?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Staubli, Stefan; Zweimueller, Josef
• 署名单位: RAND Corporation; University of Zurich; IZA Institute Labor Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2013.09.003
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 17-32
• 关键词: retirement age; Policy reform; labor supply; disability; unemployment

摘要

Two pension reforms in Austria increased the early retirement age (ERA) from 60 to 62 for men and from 55 to 58.25 for women. We find that raising the ERA increased employment by 9.75 percentage points among affected men and by 11 percentage points among affected women. The reforms had large spillover effects on the unemployment insurance program but negligible effects on disability insurance claims. Specifically, unemployment increased by 12.5 percentage points among men and by 11.8 percentage points among women. The employment response was largest among high-wage and healthy workers, while low-wage and less healthy workers either continued to retire early via disability benefits or bridged the gap to the ERA via unemployment benefits. Taking spillover effects and additional tax revenues into account, we find that for a typical birth-year cohort a one year increase in the ERA resulted in a reduction of net government expenditures of 107 million euros for men and of 122 million euros for women. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.