IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/apacel/v36y2022i1p105-125.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unintended consequences of the retirement‐age extension in South Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Tai Lee
  • Joonmo Cho

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the effects of the policy on the legal retirement age of 60 (or above) implemented in Korea in 2016. It was generally expected that the implementation of the policy would extend the retirement age of workers and provide them with minimum employment up to the age of 60. However, our empirical analysis provides evidence contrary to general expectations. First, post the introduction of the policy, the probability of workers retiring at the mandatory retirement age has decreased, whereas the probability of workers retiring early for involuntary reasons in their 50s has increased. Second, the workers who were predicted to benefit from the policy had trouble retaining their jobs until the legal retirement age of 60. These results demonstrate the possibility that companies attempted to terminate their senior workers before they reached the mandatory retirement age of 60 by means of recommendations to resign and offers of honourable retirement. In conclusion, we found that it is difficult to provide actual employment protection up to the legal retirement age by making it compulsory through legislation.

Suggested Citation

  • Tai Lee & Joonmo Cho, 2022. "Unintended consequences of the retirement‐age extension in South Korea," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 36(1), pages 105-125, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:apacel:v:36:y:2022:i:1:p:105-125
    DOI: 10.1111/apel.12351
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/apel.12351
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/apel.12351?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Frimmel, Wolfgang & Horvath, Thomas & Schnalzenberger, Mario & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf, 2018. "Seniority wages and the role of firms in retirement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 19-32.
    2. Duane E. Leigh, 1984. "Why is There Mandatory Retirement? An Empirical Reexamination," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 19(4), pages 512-531.
    3. Ayako Kondo & Hitoshi Shigeoka, 2017. "The Effectiveness of Demand-Side Government Intervention to Promote Elderly Employment: Evidence from Japan," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 70(4), pages 1008-1036, August.
    4. Martins, Pedro S. & Novo, Alvaro A. & Portugal, Pedro, 2009. "Increasing the Legal Retirement Age: The Impact on Wages, Worker Flows and Firm Performance," IZA Discussion Papers 4187, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Lazear, Edward P, 1979. "Why Is There Mandatory Retirement?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(6), pages 1261-1284, December.
    6. David Neumark & Wendy A. Stock, 1999. "Age Discrimination Laws and Labor Market Efficiency," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(5), pages 1081-1110, October.
    7. Lazear, Edward P, 1981. "Agency, Earnings Profiles, Productivity, and Hours Restrictions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(4), pages 606-620, September.
    8. Staubli, Stefan & Zweimüller, Josef, 2013. "Does raising the early retirement age increase employment of older workers?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 17-32.
    9. Jay H. Hong & Youngjae Lee & Taesu Kang, 2016. "Population Aging and Extension of Retirement Age (Quantitative Analysis using Overlapping Generation Model) (in Korean)," Economic Analysis (Quarterly), Economic Research Institute, Bank of Korea, vol. 22(2), pages 1-49, June.
    10. Hakola, Tuulia & Uusitalo, Roope, 2005. "Not so voluntary retirement decisions? Evidence from a pension reform," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(11-12), pages 2121-2136, December.
    11. Brown, James N, 1989. "Why Do Wages Increase with Tenure? On-the-Job Training and Life-Cycle Wage Growth Observed within Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(5), pages 971-991, December.
    12. Garibaldi, Pietro & Boeri, Tito & Moen, Espen R., 2016. "A clash of generations? Increase in Retirement Age and Labor Demand for Youth," CEPR Discussion Papers 11422, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Peter J. Stauvermann & Jin Hu, 2018. "What can China Expect from an Increase of the Mandatory Retirement Age?," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 19(1), pages 229-246, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Todd Morris & Benoit Dostie, 2023. "Graying and staying on the job: The welfare implications of employment protection for older workers," Cahiers de recherche / Working Papers 15, Institut sur la retraite et l'épargne / Retirement and Savings Institute.
    2. Piera Bello & Vincenzo Galasso, 2020. "Old before their time: the role of employers in retirement decisions," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(5), pages 1198-1223, October.
    3. Nishimura, Yoshinori, 2016. "Did Government Intervention on Firm’s Employment Policies Have an Effect on the Employment of Elderly Workers?," MPRA Paper 73444, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Piera Bello & Vincenzo Galasso, 2020. "Old before their time: the role of employers in retirement decisions," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(5), pages 1198-1223, October.
    5. Alberto Bayo-Moriones & Jose E. Galdon-Sanchez & Maia Güell, 2010. "Is seniority-based pay used as a motivational device? Evidence from plant-level data," Research in Labor Economics, in: Jobs, Training, and Worker Well-being, pages 155-187, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    6. Ichino, Andrea & Schwerdt, Guido & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf & Zweimüller, Josef, 2017. "Too old to work, too young to retire?," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 9(C), pages 14-29.
    7. Simon Rabaté, 2017. "Can I Stay or Should I Go? Mandatory Retirement and Labor Force Participation of Older Workers," Working Papers halshs-01521150, HAL.
    8. Frimmel, Wolfgang & Horvath, Thomas & Schnalzenberger, Mario & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf, 2018. "Seniority wages and the role of firms in retirement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 19-32.
    9. Simon Jäger & Benjamin Schoefer & Josef Zweimüller, 2023. "Marginal Jobs and Job Surplus: A Test of the Efficiency of Separations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(3), pages 1265-1303.
    10. Giuseppe Croce & Andrea Ricci & Giuliana Tesauro, 2019. "Pensions reforms, workforce ageing and firm-provided welfare," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(32), pages 3480-3497, July.
    11. Andrea Albanese & Bart Cockx & Yannick Thuy, 2020. "Working time reductions at the end of the career: Do they prolong the time spent in employment?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 99-141, July.
    12. Dohmen, Thomas J., 2004. "Performance, seniority, and wages: formal salary systems and individual earnings profiles," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(6), pages 741-763, December.
    13. Paul Hek & Daniel Vuuren, 2011. "Are older workers overpaid? A literature review," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 18(4), pages 436-460, August.
    14. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3tbgp7jdmr8h1qccuk9kiohoki is not listed on IDEAS
    15. C Machado & Miguel Portela, 2014. "Hours of work and retirement behaviour," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-22, December.
    16. Daniel, Kirsten & Heywood, John S., 2007. "The determinants of hiring older workers: UK evidence," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 35-51, January.
    17. Zwick, Thomas, 2011. "Seniority wages and establishment characteristics," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 853-861.
    18. Simon Rabaté, 2017. "Can I Stay or Should I Go? Mandatory Retirement and Labor Force Participation of Older Workers," PSE Working Papers halshs-01521150, HAL.
    19. Hanson, Torbjørn & Lindgren, Petter Y., 2019. "No country for old men? Increasing the retirement age in the Armed Forces," MPRA Paper 95917, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Christian Pfeifer, 2009. "Adjustment of Deferred Compensation Schemes, Fairness Concerns, and Hiring of Older Workers," Working Paper Series in Economics 151, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    21. Björklund, Anders & Åkerman, Jeanette, 1989. "Piece-Rates, On-the-Job Training and the Wage-Tenure Profile," Working Paper Series 246, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:apacel:v:36:y:2022:i:1:p:105-125. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14678411 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.