Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World : Micro-Estimation

by edited by Jonathan Gruber and David A. Wise

• ISBN13: 9780226310183
• ISBN10: 0226310183
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-03-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Social Security Programs and Retirement around the Worldrepresents the second stage of an ongoing research project studying the relationship between social security and labor. In the first volume, Jonathan Gruber and David A. Wise revealed enormous disincentives to continued work at older ages in developed countries. Provisions of many social security programs typically encourage retirement by reducing pay for work, inducing older employees to leave the labor force early and magnifying the financial burden caused by an aging population. At a certain age there is simply no financial benefit to continuing to work.In this volume, the authors turn to a country-by-country analysis of retirement behavior based on micro-data. The result of research compiled by teams in twelve countries, the volume shows an almost uniform correlation between levels of social security incentives and retirement behavior in each country. The estimates also show that the effect is strikingly uniform in countries with very different cultural histories, labor market institutions, and other social characteristics.

Author Biography

Jonathan Gruber is a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and director of research for the National Bureau of Economic Research's program on children. David A. Wise is the John F. Stambaugh Professor of Political Economy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and director of health and retirement programs at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction and Summary	1	(578)
Jonathan Gruber and David A. Wise
1. Micro-Modeling of Retirement in Belgium	41	(58)
Arnaud Dellis, Raphaël Desmet, Alain Jousten, and Sergio Perelman
2. Income Security Programs and Retirement in Canada	99	(54)
Michael Baker, Jonathan Gruber, and Kevin Milligan
3. The Impact of Incentives on Retirement in Denmark	153	(82)
Paul Bingley, Nabanita Datta Gupta, and Peder J. Pedersen
4. Estimating Models of Retirement Behavior on French Data	235	(50)
Ronan Mahieu and Didier Blanchet
5. Micro-Modeling of Retirement Decisions in Germany	285	(60)
Axel Borsch-Supan, Reinhold Schnabel, Simone Kohnz, and Giovanni Mastrobuoni
6. Micro-Modeling of Retirement Behavior in Italy	345	(54)
Agar Brugiavini and Franco Peracchi
7. Social Security and Retirement in Japan: An Evaluation Using Micro-Data	399	(62)
Takashi Oshio and Akiko Sato Oishi
8. Incentives and Exit Routes to Retirement in the Netherlands	461	(38)
Klaas de Vos and Arie Kapteyn
9. Micro-Modeling of Retirement Behavior in Spain	499	(80)
Michele Boldrin, Sergi Jiménez-Martin, and Franco Peracchi
10. Income Security Programs and Retirement in Sweden	579	(64)
Mårten Palme and Ingemar Svensson
11. Pension Incentives and the Pattern of Retirement in the United Kingdom	643	(48)
Richard Blundell, Costas Meghir, and Sarah Smith
12. The Effect of Social Security on Retirement in the United States	691	(40)
Courtney Coite and Jonathan Gruber
Contributors	731	(4)
Author Index	735	(2)
Subject Index	737