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Retirement
Kinds of Retirement Terms modified by Retirement Selected AbstractsPrivate Pension Arrangements and Retirement in Britain,FISCAL STUDIES, Issue 1 2005James Banks Abstract This paper looks at the policy debate surrounding private pensions and retirement patterns in the UK. Recent increases in longevity have led not only to increased pressures in public pensions but also to corresponding increases in the importance of private pensions in the UK and changes in the way in which they are structured. We consider the economic implications of these changes, and in particular the increased importance of defined contribution plans. In addition, we discuss the prospects for future trends in retirement ages. [source] Providing care for an elderly parent: interactions among siblings?HEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue 9 2009Roméo Fontaine Abstract This article is focused on children providing and financing long-term care for their elderly parent. The aim of this work is to highlight the interactions that may take place among siblings when deciding whether or not to become a caregiver. We look at families with two children using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe; our sample contains 314 dependent elderly and their 628 adult children. In order to identify the interactions between siblings, we have specified a two-person discrete game model. To estimate this model, without invoking the ,coherency' condition, we have added an endogenous selection rule to solve the incompleteness problem arising from multiplicity or absence of equilibrium. Our empirical results suggest that the three classical effects identified by Manski could potentially explain the observed correlation between the siblings' caregiving behaviour. Correlated effects alone appear to be weak. Contextual interactions and endogenous interactions reveal cross-effects. The asymmetric character of the endogenous interactions is our most striking result. The younger child's involvement appears to increase the net benefit of caregiving for the elder one, whereas the elder child's involvement decreases the net benefit of caregiving for the younger child. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Depression and Retirement in Late Middle-Aged U.S. WorkersHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 2 2008Jalpa A. Doshi Objective. To determine whether late middle-aged U.S. workers with depression are at an increased risk for retirement. Data Source. Six biennial waves (1992,2002) of the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative panel survey of noninstitutionalized 51,61-year-olds and their spouses started in 1992. Study Design. Workers aged 53,58 years in 1994 were followed every 2 years thereafter, through 2002. Depression was coded as lagged time-dependent variables measuring active depression and severity of depression. The main outcome variable was a transition to retirement which was measured using two distinct definitions to capture different stages in the retirement process: (1) Retirement was defined as a transition out of the labor force in the sample of all labor force participants (N=2,853); (2) In addition a transition out of full time work was used as the retirement definition in the subset of labor force participants who were full time workers (N=2,288). Principal Findings. In the sample of all labor force participants, the presence of active depression significantly increased the hazard of retirement in both late middle-aged men (adjusted OR: 1.37 [95 percent CI 1.05, 1.80]) and women (adjusted OR: 1.40 [95 percent CI 1.10, 1.78]). For women, subthreshold depression was also a significant predictor of retirement. In the sample of full time workers, the relationship between depression and retirement was considerably weaker for women yet remained strong for men. Conclusions. Depression and depressive symptoms were significantly associated with retirement in late middle-aged U.S. workers. Policymakers must consider the potentially adverse impact of these labor market outcomes when estimating the cost of untreated depression and evaluating the value of interventions to improve the diagnosis and treatment of depression. [source] Ascertaining late-life depressive symptoms in Europe: an evaluation of the survey version of the EURO-D scale in 10 nations.INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF METHODS IN PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH, Issue 1 2008The SHARE project Abstract The reported prevalence of late-life depressive symptoms varies widely between studies, a finding that might be attributed to cultural as well as methodological factors. The EURO-D scale was developed to allow valid comparison of prevalence and risk associations between European countries. This study used Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Rasch models to assess whether the goal of measurement invariance had been achieved; using EURO-D scale data collected in 10 European countries as part of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) (n = 22,777). The results suggested a two-factor solution (Affective Suffering and Motivation) after Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in 9 of the 10 countries. With CFA, in all countries, the two-factor solution had better overall goodness-of-fit than the one-factor solution. However, only the Affective Suffering subscale was equivalent across countries, while the Motivation subscale was not. The Rasch model indicated that the EURO-D was a hierarchical scale. While the calibration pattern was similar across countries, between countries agreement in item calibrations was stronger for the items loading on the affective suffering than the motivation factor. In conclusion, there is evidence to support the EURO-D as either a uni-dimensional or bi-dimensional scale measure of depressive symptoms in late-life across European countries. The Affective Suffering sub-component had more robust cross-cultural validity than the Motivation sub-component. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Retirement or relearning the joys of the discovery process,JOURNAL OF CELLULAR BIOCHEMISTRY, Issue 2 2004Edward Bresnick First page of article [source] Reforming Early Retirement in Europe, Japan and the USA by Bernhard EbbinghausJOURNAL OF RISK AND INSURANCE, Issue 4 2008Article first published online: 5 NOV 200 No abstract is available for this article. [source] Critical Investigations of Age and Aging in the United StatesAMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 4 2005SARAH E. LAMB Aged by Culture. Margaret Morganroth Gullette. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. 267 pp. Breaking the Watch: The Meanings of Retirement in America. Joel S. Savishinsky. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000. 281 pp. My Mother's Hip: Lessons from the World of Eldercare. Luisa Margolies. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004. 339 pp. [source] Self-Image of People in Their FiftiesNURSING & HEALTH SCIENCES, Issue 3 2002Laiad Jamjan People in their fifties experience a transitional phase in aging. The impact of physical and emotional change is considerable due to deteriorated health and economic status. With the onset of aging, self-image of the pre-senescent provides an understanding of one's perceptions and thoughts on aging. Therefore, increased awareness of the pre-senescents' needs has resulted in further development of the nurse's role in health promotion. The main aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of self-image, a key factor of health promotion in the pre-senescent. The study participants consisted of 10 women in their fifties from the Aging Club at 43rd Health Center, Bangkok, Thailand. Focus group interview was used to explore self-image. The interview focused on the concept of health, aging, retirement, and the impact of change. Health results: The majority (80%) of the participants agreed that the definition of health was the equilibrium of basic needs. The definition of good health to them was a delightful mood. They described the concept of good health as either the balance of excretion, sleep and rest, or being free of disease and personal illness. Three participants complained of health problems because they had to take care of their husbands. Deteriorated health was found to be the stimulus to such aging states as blurred vision, hearing loss, menopause, and osteoporosis. Aging: The participants accepted that aging was a naturally occurring phenomenon. ,Age is only a number', ,If our minds are still young, our bodies will be youthful.' They did not want to be called ,old'. Retirement: Represents a time when they will be lonely and lack financial support. This also was described as the autumn of life. It was seen as the time to enjoy the golden years of life. The impact of changes: The participants experienced emotional changes such as increased sensitivity of feelings and needed family support. They also complained of physical changes (i.e. loss of appetite, teeth and agility). Only one participant, who had improved her emotional maturity, was proud of aging. Conclusion: For the pre-senescent, the aging transition begins with the changes in one's physical and mental condition. An optimistic attitude towards this process enables the pre-senescent to approach and better accept the process of aging. Nurses therefore need to continue to develop holistic approaches in caring for the aging. [source] Systematically Dependent Competing Risks and Strategic RetirementAMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2009Kentaro Fukumoto In many applications of survival analysis, the risk of an event occurring for one reason is dependent on the risk of the same event occurring for another reason. For example, when politicians suspect they might lose an election, they may strategically choose to retire. In such situations, the often-used multinomial logit model suffers from bias and underestimates the degree of strategic retirement, for example, to what extent poor prior electoral performance diminishes electoral prospects. To address this problem, the present article proposes a systematically dependent competing-risks (SDCR) model of survival analysis. Unlike the frailty model, the SDCR model can also deal with more than two risks. Monte Carlo simulation demonstrates how much the SDCR model reduces bias. Reanalysis of data on U.S. congressional careers (Box-Steffensmeier and Jones 2004) documents the strategic retirement of representatives, indicating that electoral pressure is more effective at turning out incumbents than previously recognized. [source] The Retirement-Consumption Puzzle and Involuntary Early Retirement: Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey,THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 510 2006Sarah Smith This article uses data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) to shed further light on the fall in consumption at retirement (the ,retirement-consumption puzzle'). Comparing food spending of men retiring involuntarily early (through ill health or redundancy) with spending of men who retire voluntarily, it finds a significant fall in spending only for those who retire involuntarily. This is consistent with the observed fall in spending being linked to a negative wealth shock for some retirees. [source] Social Representations of Retirement in France: A Descriptive StudyAPPLIED PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2009Christine Roland-Lévy The social representations of three social groups (students, people in the workforce, and retirees) are investigated. Comparison of the three samples allows one to describe how social representations of retirement differ according to age and employment status. It can be noted that both students and adults who are still working share some core elements in their representation of retirement, which is mainly perceived as a well-deserved time to rest. However, the central nucleus of those people who have recently retired excludes this idea of needing some time to rest and centers more around having less stress, and more freedom; the end of work might mean undesired inactivity. Les représentations sociales de la retraite de trois groupes sociaux (étudiants, individus issus de la population active et retraités) sont étudiées. La comparaison entre les trois échantillons permet de décrire comment les représentations sociales de la retraite diffèrent selon l'âge et le statut du sujet. On a pu noter que les étudiants et les adultes en activité partagent quelques éléments centraux de leur représentation sociale de la retraite, qui est essentiellement perçue comme un temps de repos bien mérité. Cependant, le noyau central des personnes récemment retraitées ne contient pas cette idée d'un besoin d'un temps de repos et se centre plus sur le fait d'être moins stressé et d'avoir plus de liberté; la fin du travail pourrait alors signifier une inactivité non désirée. [source] Retirement: What will you do?AUSTRALIAN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY JOURNAL, Issue 1 2010A narrative inquiry of occupation-based planning for retirement: Implications for practice Aim:,To examine, using a retrospective narrative study, the factors influencing four older people's decision to plan for the activities they would undertake once retired, the planning process undertaken and their subsequent experience of retirement. Method:,Semi-structured interviews were conducted to examine the factors influencing older people's decision to commence pre-retirement planning, the planning process undertaken and their experience of retirement. In keeping with narrative inquiry, paradigmatic-type narrative analysis led to the development of categories and subsequent themes to reveal the participants' experiences of these issues. Results:,Three themes: environmental influences, the planning process and retirement experiences: the outcome of planning, were derived from the participants' narratives. Overall, retirement activities that were continued or initiated led to a positive experience even when these planned activities were temporarily interrupted or altered. Planning for future years in retirement and older age also continued. Conclusion:,Occupational therapists have a unique understanding of the centrality of occupation to health and wellbeing. Thus occupational therapists are well-positioned to assist people identify, plan and engage in meaningful occupations outside work in retirement. [source] THE EFFECTS OF THE 1.03 MILLION YEN CEILING IN A DYNAMIC LABOR SUPPLY MODELCONTEMPORARY ECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 2 2009YUKIKO ABE In this paper I examine the effects of a means-tested transfer system in Japan ("1.03 million yen ceiling") in a dynamic labor supply model with endogenous retirement. In Japan, married women have reason to limit their annual earnings to no more than 1.03 million yen in order to receive a number of benefits available to low-income wives, and in fact often choose to do so. In a dynamic model, the optimal labor supply schedule follows a pattern that is not seen in a static framework, which I call the "spillover effect." The paper also examines the properties of dynamic welfare cost of this ceiling. (JEL J22, H24, H55) [source] PAUL FURSE AND HIS PLANT COLLECTIONS AT KEWCURTIS'S BOTANICAL MAGAZINE, Issue 1 2007Kit Strange Summary Paul Furse was an accomplished botanical artist and amateur botanist who, after his retirement from the Navy, spent several years searching for bulbs, travelling to remote locations in the Near East. He went to Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and collected many plants which are still in cultivation today. His pioneering expeditions and enthusiasm inspired a generation of botanists to explore these areas. [source] Consumption Over the Life CycleECONOMETRICA, Issue 1 2002Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas This paper estimates a structural model of optimal life-cycle consumption expenditures in the presence of realistic labor income uncertainty. We employ synthetic cohort techniques and Consumer Expenditure Survey data to construct average age-profiles of consumption and income over the working lives of typical households across different education and occupation groups. The model fits the profiles quite well. In addition to providing reasonable estimates of the discount rate and risk aversion, we find that consumer behavior changes strikingly over the life cycle. Young consumers behave as buffer-stock agents. Around age 40, the typical household starts accumulating liquid assets for retirement and its behavior mimics more closely that of a certainty equivalent consumer. Our methodology provides a natural decomposition of saving and wealth into its precautionary and life-cycle components. [source] PUNISHING THE POOR: A CRITIQUE OF MEANS-TESTED RETIREMENT BENEFITSECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2008Oskari Juurikkala Means-tested retirement benefits create strong disincentives to work and to save prior to retirement. This article outlines the structure of means-tested benefits in the UK and the USA, and reviews the theoretical and empirical evidence of their incentive effects. [source] HOW TO CLEAR UP THE PENSIONS MESSECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 3 2003David Simpson All three pillars of the British pensions system are crumbling. The basic state pension is unsustainable in its present form. Defined benefit occupational pension schemes are fast disappearing, and with them the retirement hopes of millions of workers. A further 3 million low-income earners are not saving enough for their retirement. And uncertainty about pensions choices is widespread. In each case the primary cause of the problem is governmental or regulatory failure. The paper makes eight general and four specific proposals for restoring the system. [source] AUSTRALIAN EARLY RETIREMENT TAX BIASES PRIOR TO JULY 2007 AND THE LIKELY EFFECTS OF TAX REFORM ON RETIREMENT PLANSECONOMIC PAPERS: A JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMICS AND POLICY, Issue 3 2008BRUCE FELMINGHAM We develop a simulation model explaining the accrual of retirement wealth gained from working one year beyond retirement and from this calculate an implicit tax rate on the additional year's work. We find that the pre-July 2007 Australian tax on retirement benefits was biased in favour of ages 59 and less, while the implicit rate was positive on retirement past 59. We also use the results of a national survey of 2,500 households (ASRAM SURVEY) to determine the likely response to the tax changes implemented in July 2007 and find that half those sampled are either very likely or likely to change their expected retirement dates in response to the tax changes. [source] Ageing and unused capacity in Europe: is there an early retirement trap?ECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 59 2009Viola Angelini Summary We address the issue of how early retirement may interact with limited use of financial markets in producing financial hardship later in life, when some risks (such as long-term care) are not insured. We argue that the presence of financially attractive early retirement schemes in a world of imperfect financial and insurance markets can lead to an ,early retirement trap'. Indeed, Europe witnesses many (early) retired individuals in financial distress. In our analysis we use data on 10 European countries, which differ in their pension and welfare systems, in prevailing retirement age and in households' access to financial markets. We find evidence that an early retirement trap exists, particularly in some Southern and Central European countries: people who retired early in life are more likely to be in financial hardship in the long run. Our analysis implies that governments should stop making early retirement attractive, let retirees go back to work, improve access to financial markets and make sure long-term care problems are adequately insured. , Viola Angelini, Agar Brugiavini and Guglielmo Weber [source] Dedication to Professor Bertold J. Radola on the occasion of his retirementELECTROPHORESIS, Issue 23-24 2004Ziad El Rassi No abstracts. [source] Phased retirement for trying timesEMPLOYMENT RELATIONS TODAY, Issue 1 2009Pierce F. Noble First page of article [source] Addiction: a journal and its Invisible College,ADDICTION, Issue 5 2006Griffith Edwards ABSTRACT Provenance This paper derives from a lecture given before the Society for the Study of Addiction in November 2004, on the author's retirement from the position of Editor-in-Chief of Addiction, one of the Society's journals. Aim To identify the live processes which have influenced the journal's evolution since its foundation in 1884. Conclusions Over the 120-year period a strong, continuing historical thread has been the fluctuating success of the journal's engagement with its ,Invisible College', the community which it seeks to serve. It is argued that the journal's future success will depend on its capacity to explore and nurture further this two-way relationship. Addiction is a journal with an active and clearly articulated, multiple vision of it purpose, and this vision is outlined. It dares to try to influence its future with the authority so to do rooted in its ability to reflect the aspirations and concerns of its readers. It is ,a journal of the second kind'. [source] How Effective is Farmer Early Retirement Policy?EUROCHOICES, Issue 3 2008Quelle est l'efficacité de la politique de préretraite pour les agriculteurs? Summary How Effective is Farmer Early Retirement Policy? Financial support for EU farmers seeking early retirement is a discretionary element of CAP rural development policy and some EU member states, most notably France, Ireland and Greece have chosen to implement the measure. We explore whether the introduction of such schemes is likely to represent good value for money. We use data from Northern Ireland, a region with a relatively small-scale family-farm structure, where there have been periodic calls from farmer groups to introduce support for early retirement. We estimate the benefits that might arise from the introduction of such a scheme using FADN data and a separate survey of 350 farmers aged 50 to 65. We find that farm scale is a significant determinant of profit per hectare but that operator age is not. Benefits from releasing land through an early retirement scheme are conditional on such transfers bringing about significant farm expansion and changes in land use. Even when these conditions are satisfied, however, pensions payments of only about one-third the statutory maximum could be justified in a best-case scenario. Almost a quarter of all payments would incur deadweight losses, i.e., go to farmers who would be retiring anyway. Overall, the economic case for such a scheme is considered to be weak. Le soutien financier aux agriculteurs de l'Union européenne qui veulent prendre une retraite anticipée est un élément discrétionnaire de la politique de développement rural de la PAC et certains pays membres, en tout premier lieu la France, l'Irlande et la Grèce, ont choisi de mettre en place cette mesure. Nous recherchons si l'introduction de telles mesures serait intéressante par rapport au coût financier. L'analyse porte sur des données nord-irlandaises, région d'exploitations familiales de taille relativement petite dans laquelle les représentants agricoles ont régulièrement appeléà la mise en place de soutien pour la retraite anticipée. Nous estimons les avantages que pourrait procurer l'introduction de cette mesure à l'aide de données du RICA et d'une enquête indépendante portant sur 350 agriculteurs âgés de 50 à 65 ans. Nous trouvons que la taille de l'exploitation est un déterminant significatif du profit par hectare mais que l'âge de l'exploitant n'en est pas un. Les avantages de la mise à disposition de terres grâce à un programme de préretraite dépendent de la capacité de ces transferts à entraîner un accroissement notable de la taille des exploitations et des modifications de l'utilisation des terres. Cependant, même lorsque ces conditions sont remplies, seuls des paiements représentant un tiers du niveau maximum prévu dans le programme de préretraite pourraient se justifier dans un scénario optimal. Pratiquement un quart du total des paiements serait liéà des pertes de bien-être, c'est-à-dire que les bénéficiaires seraient des agriculteurs qui aurait pris leur retraite de toute façon. Globalement, l'intérêt économique d'un tel programme est considéré comme faible. Die finanzielle Unterstützung von Landwirten in der EU, die in den Vorruhestand gehen möchten, stellt in der Politik der GAP zur Entwicklung des ländlichen Raums ein diskretionäres Element dar; in einigen Mitgliedsstaaten wie z.B. Frankreich, Irland und Griechenland wird diese Maßnahme angeboten. Wir untersuchen, ob es möglicherweise finanziell sinnvoll wäre, solche Programme einzuführen. Dazu ziehen wir Daten aus Nordirland heran, einer Region mit relativ kleinen landwirtschaftlichen Familienbetrieben, in der sich Landwirte regelmäßig dafür aussprechen, Vorruhestandprogramme einzuführen. Wir schätzen den Nutzen, der sich aus der Einführung eines solchen Programms ergeben könnte, anhand von INLB-Daten und einer gesonderten Befragung von 350 Landwirten im Alter von 50 bis 65 Jahren. Wir stellen fest, dass es sich bei der Betriebsgröße , im Gegensatz zum Alter des Betreibers , um einen entscheidenden Faktor für die Höhe des Gewinns pro Hektar handelt. Ein Nutzen aus der Landübertragung aufgrund eines Vorruhestandprogramms beruht auf solchen Transfers, die eine bedeutsame Betriebserweiterung und veränderte Flächennutzung zur Folge haben. Selbst wenn diese Bedingungen erfüllt werden, könnten günstigstenfalls nur Rentenzahlungen in Höhe von etwa einem Drittel der gesetzlich verankerten Höchstsumme gerechtfertigt werden. Beinahe ein Viertel aller Zahlungen wäre mit Mitnahmeeffekten verbunden, d.h. Landwirten zukommen, die ohnehin den Ruhestand antreten würden. Aus ökonomischer Sicht muss ein solches Programm als schwach eingestuft werden. [source] Factors Associated with Seeking and Using Professional Retirement-Planning HelpFAMILY & CONSUMER SCIENCES RESEARCH JOURNAL, Issue 1 2001So-Hyun Joo This article presents findings from a study that examined the factors that influence who is more likely to seek and use help with their retirement questions and concerns from professional advisors or others, including friends, colleagues, and publications. A model of retirement help-seeking behavior is presented. Logistic regression results using data from the 1998 Retirement Confidence Survey (N = 711) showed that among preretirees, women versus men, those who (a) had higher incomes, (b) exhibited better financial behaviors, (c) had positive and proactive attitudes toward retirement, and (d) had a higher level of financial risk-tolerance were more likely to seek and use help from financial professionals when making retirement investment decisions. [source] Marital Satisfaction Among African Americans and Black Caribbeans: Findings From the National Survey of American Life,FAMILY RELATIONS, Issue 2 2008Chalandra M. Bryant Abstract: This study examines the correlates of marital satisfaction using data from a national probability sample of African Americans (N = 962) and Black Caribbeans (N = 560). Findings reveal differences between African Americans and Black Caribbeans, and men and women within those groups, in the predictors of marital satisfaction. Black Caribbean women reported overall higher levels of marital satisfaction than African American women. The findings amply demonstrate the significance of ethnic diversity within the Black population in the United States. Difficulties with finances (budgeting, credit issues, and debt management) are one of the key issues that generate conflict in marriages; stress generated as a result of financial problems can lower marital satisfaction. Because these issues are salient for couples at any given time in the family life cycle, counseling at critical points in the marriage (birth of children, launching of children from home, and retirement) may be helpful. [source] Public Pension Reform in the United Kingdom: What Effect on the Financial Well-Being of Current and Future Pensioners?,FISCAL STUDIES, Issue 1 2005Richard Disney Abstract Unlike many tax and benefit changes, reforms to public pension programmes take many years to have their full effect. This paper examines the effect of reforms to the public pension programme in the United Kingdom on the state retirement incomes of current generations of pensioners and on the prospective state incomes of future generations of pensioners. We show that, for an individual with lifetime earnings close to male average earnings, the UK pension system is at its most generous to those reaching the state pension age around the year 2000, but that the introduction of the state second pension and the pension credit postpones this peak for individuals on lower incomes and for those with substantial periods out of paid employment spent with caring responsibilities. We also consider how the ,mix' of benefits, particularly between the contributory and income-tested sectors, could change over time, and the impact that this would have on incentives to save for retirement. [source] A Note on the Tax Treatment of Private Pensions and Individual Savings AccountsFISCAL STUDIES, Issue 1 2000CARL EMMERSON The UK government is planning to introduce stakeholder pensions from April 2001 as an alternative to existing personal pensions for people on moderate earnings. But stakeholder pensions are only one way to save for retirement; the new tax-free Individual Savings Account (ISA) is another. This note compares the tax treatments of pensions and ISAs and assesses the conditions under which the tax treatment of private pensions is more generous than that of an ISA to a basicrate taxpayer , the typical target for stakeholder pensions. The abolition of dividend tax credits paid to pension funds in July 1997 reduced the relatively tax-favoured position of pensions, but the tax-free lump sum means that private pensions continue to be a tax-favoured form of saving at most reasonable rates of return. We show that employer contributions to private pensions are particularly tax-favoured. [source] Social Desirability of Earnings TestsGERMAN ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 2 2008Helmuth Cremer Earnings tests; social security; age-related taxation; retirement age Abstract. In many countries, pension systems involve some form of earnings test; i.e. an individual's benefits are reduced if he has labor income. This paper examines whether or not such earnings tests emerge when pension system and income tax are optimally designed. We use a simple model with individuals differing both in productivity and in their health status. The working life of an individual has two ,endings': an official retirement age at which he starts drawing pension benefits (while possibly supplementing them with some labor income) and an effective age of retirement at which professional activity is completely given up. Weekly work time is endogenous, but constant in the period before official retirement and again constant (but possibly at a different level), after official retirement. Earnings tests mean that earnings are subject to a higher tax after official retirement than before. We show under which conditions earnings tests emerge both under a linear and under a non-linear tax scheme. In particular, we show that earnings tests will occur if heterogeneities in health or productivity are more significant after official retirement than before. [source] Pension Reform, Capital Markets and the Rate of ReturnGERMAN ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 2 2003Axel Börsch-Supan Aging; pension reform; rates of return Abstract. This paper discusses the consequences of population aging and a fundamental pension reform , that is, a shift towards more pre-funding , for capital markets in Germany. We use a stylized closed-economy, overlapping-generations model to compare the effects of the recent German pension reform with those of a more decisive reform that would freeze the current pay-as-you-go contribution rate and thus result in a larger funded component of the pension system. We predict rates of return to capital under both reform scenarios over a long horizon, taking demographic projections as given. Our main finding is that the future decrease in the rate of return is much smaller than often claimed in the public debate. Our simulations show that the capital stock will decrease once the baby-boom generations enter retirement, even if there were no fundamental pension reform. The corresponding decrease in the rate of return, the direct effect of population aging, is around 0.7 percentage points. While the capital market effects of the recent German pension reform are marginal, the rate of return to capital would decrease by an additional 0.5 percentage points under the more decisive reform proposal. [source] The impact of health on individual retirement plans: self-reported versus diagnostic measuresHEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue 7 2010Nabanita Datta Gupta Abstract We reassess the impact of health on retirement plans of older workers using a unique survey-register match-up which allows comparing the retirement effects of potentially biased survey self-reports of health to those of unbiased register-based diagnostic measures. The aim is to investigate whether even for narrowly defined health measures a divergence exists in the impacts of health on retirement between self-reported health and objective physician-reported health. Our sample consists of older workers and retirees drawn from a Danish panel survey from 1997 and 2002, merged to longitudinal register data. Estimation of measurement error-reduced and selection-corrected pooled OLS and fixed effects models of retirement show that receiving a medical diagnosis is an important determinant of retirement planning for both men and women, in fact more important than economic factors. The type of diagnosis matters, however. For men, the largest reduction in planned retirement age occurs for a diagnosis of lung disease while for women it occurs for musculo-skeletal disease. Except for cardiovascular disease, diagnosed disease is more influential in men's retirement planning than in women's. Our study provides evidence that men's self-report of myalgia and back problems and women's self-report of osteoarthritis possibly yield biased estimates of the impact on planned retirement age, and that this bias ranges between 1.5 and 2 years, suggesting that users of survey data should be wary of applying self-reports of health conditions with diffuse symptoms to the study of labor market outcomes. On the other hand, self-reported cardiovascular disease such as high blood pressure does not appear to bias the estimated impact on planned retirement. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||