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The link between pensions and retirement timing: Lessons from California teachers

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  • Brown, Kristine M.

Abstract

I exploit a major, unanticipated reform of the California teachers' pension to provide quasi-experimental evidence on the link between pension features and retirement timing. Using two large administrative data sets, I conduct a reduced-form analysis that leverages the nonlinearities in the return to work generated by the pension features and the reform-induced shifts of these nonlinearities for identification. The implied estimates of the elasticity of lifetime labor supply with respect to the return to work are centered around 0.04 in the medium-run and are less than 0.1 in the long-run.

Suggested Citation

  • Brown, Kristine M., 2013. "The link between pensions and retirement timing: Lessons from California teachers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 1-14.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:98:y:2013:i:c:p:1-14
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2012.10.007
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    References listed on IDEAS

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