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Health, longevity and retirement reform

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  • Laun, Tobias
  • Markussen, Simen
  • Vigtel, Trond Christian
  • Wallenius, Johanna

Abstract

In this paper, we study alternative retirement reforms designed to achieve fiscal sustainability in the face of demographic change. We are particularly interested in the heterogeneous effects across demographic groups, as improvements in health and longevity have not been uniform across the population. To this end, we develop a dynamic, structural life cycle model of heterogeneous agents who face health, mortality and income risk. We consider the following policy reform measures: (1) increasing the early access age to old-age retirement, (2) raising income taxes, (3) lowering old-age retirement benefits and (4) lowering old-age retirement and disability benefits. We find that, of the considered policies, proportionally lowering old-age retirement and disability benefits results in the highest average welfare for all education categories. It is also the most successful at boosting employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Laun, Tobias & Markussen, Simen & Vigtel, Trond Christian & Wallenius, Johanna, 2019. "Health, longevity and retirement reform," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 123-157.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:103:y:2019:i:c:p:123-157
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jedc.2019.03.004
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    Cited by:

    1. John Bailey Jones & Yue Li, 2023. "Social Security Reform with Heterogeneous Mortality," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 48, pages 320-344, April.
    2. Wallenius, Johanna, 2022. "R(a)ising employment of older individuals," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    3. Pashchenko, Svetlana & Porapakkarm, Ponpoje & Jang, Youngsoo, 2023. "Mortality Regressivity and Pension Design," MPRA Paper 117936, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Deng, Yuanyuan & Fang, Hanming & Hanewald, Katja & Wu, Shang, 2023. "Delay the Pension Age or Adjust the Pension Benefit? Implications for Labor Supply and Individual Welfare in China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 1192-1215.
    5. Svend E. Hougaard Jensen & Thorsteinn Sigurdur Sveinsson & Gylfi Zoega, 2021. "Longevity Adjustment of Retirement Age and Intragenerational Inequality," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 88(350), pages 339-363, April.
    6. Miguel Sanchez-Romero & Alexia Prskawetz, 2020. "The Impact of Reducing the Pension Generosity on Inequality and Schooling," De Economist, Springer, vol. 168(2), pages 279-304, June.
    7. Delalibera, Bruno Ricardo & Ferreira, Pedro Cavalcanti & Parente, Rafael Machado, 2023. "Social security reforms, retirement and sectoral decisions," FGV EPGE Economics Working Papers (Ensaios Economicos da EPGE) 838, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil).
    8. Díaz-Saavedra, Julián, 2023. "Heterogeneity in longevity, redistribution, and pension reform," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(4), pages 604-639, October.
    9. Volker Grossmann & Johannes Schünemann & Holger Strulik, 2021. "Fair Pension Policies with Occupation-Specific Aging," CESifo Working Paper Series 9180, CESifo.
    10. Sanchez-Romero, Miguel & Schuster, Philip & Prskawetz, Alexia, 2021. "Redistributive effects of pension reforms: Who are the winners and losers?," ECON WPS - Working Papers in Economic Theory and Policy 06/2021, TU Wien, Institute of Statistics and Mathematical Methods in Economics, Economics Research Unit.
    11. Sigurd Mølster Galaasen, 2021. "Pension Reform Disabled," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 123(4), pages 1227-1260, October.
    12. Baurin, Arno & Hindriks, Jean, 2023. "Intergenerational consequences of gradual pension reforms," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    13. John Bailey Jones & Yue Li, 2023. "Social Security Reform with Heterogeneous Mortality," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 48, pages 320-344, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Life cycle; Retirement; Disability insurance; Health;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies

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