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On Welfare Effects of Increasing Retirement Age

Author

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  • Joanna Tyrowicz

    (Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union IAAEU), Trier University)

  • Krzysztof Makarski

    (Warsaw School of Economics)

Abstract

We develop an OLG model with realistic assumptions about longevity to analyze the welfare effects of raising the retirement age. We look at a scenario where an economy has a pay-as-you-go defined benefit scheme and compare it to a scenario with defined contribution schemes (funded or notional). We show that, initially, in both types of pension system schemes the majority of welfare effects comes from adjustments in taxes and/or prices. After the transition period, welfare effects are predominantly generated by the preference for smoothing inherent in many widely used models. We also show that although incentives differ between defined benefit and defined contribution systems, the welfare effects are of comparable magnitude under both schemes. We provide an explanation for this counter-intuitive result.

Suggested Citation

  • Joanna Tyrowicz & Krzysztof Makarski, 2018. "On Welfare Effects of Increasing Retirement Age," IAAEU Discussion Papers 201804, Institute of Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU).
    • Handle: RePEc:iaa:dpaper:201804
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    1. Daniel Baksa & Zsuzsa Munkacsi, 2016. "Aging, (Pension) Reforms and the Shadow Economy in Southern Europe," Bank of Lithuania Working Paper Series 32, Bank of Lithuania.
    2. Laszlo Goerke, 2018. "Sickness Absence and Relative Income," IAAEU Discussion Papers 201812, Institute of Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU).
    3. Joanna Tyrowicz & Krzysztof Makarski & Marcin Bielecki, 2018. "Inequality in an OLG economy with heterogeneous cohorts and pension systems," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(4), pages 583-606, December.
    4. Krzysztof Makarski & Joanna Tyrowicz & Magda Malec, 2018. "Evaluating welfare and economic effects of raised fertility," GRAPE Working Papers 25, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    5. de Pinto Marco & Goerke Laszlo, 2019. "Efficiency Wages in Cournot-Oligopoly," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 19(4), pages 1-13, October.
    6. Zheng Shen & James Yang, 2021. "A Simulation Study of the Effect of Delayed Retirement on Welfare of the Elderly: Evidence from China," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(2), pages 21582440211, June.
    7. Baksa, Daniel & Munkacsi, Zsuzsa & Nerlich, Carolin, 2020. "A framework for assessing the costs of pension reform reversals," Working Paper Series 2396, European Central Bank.
    8. Xie, Xiaohong & Osińska, Magdalena & Szczepaniak, Małgorzata, 2023. "Do young generations save for retirement? Ensuring financial security of Gen Z and Gen Y," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 644-668.
    9. Joanna Tyrowicz & Krzysztof Makarski & Marcin Bielecki, 2016. "Reforming retirement age in DB and DC pension systems in an aging OLG economy with heterogenous agents," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-36, December.
    10. Stephan Huber & Jochen Model & Silvio Städter, 2019. "Ostracism in alliances of teams and individuals: Voting, exclusion, contribution, and earnings," IAAEU Discussion Papers 201901, Institute of Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU).
    11. Laszlo Goerke, 2020. "Horizontal FDI in a Dynamic Cournot - Oligopoly with Endogenous Entry," IAAEU Discussion Papers 202003, Institute of Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU).
    12. Daniel Baksa & Zsuzsa Munkacsi, 2016. "A Detailed Description of OGRE, the OLG Model," Bank of Lithuania Working Paper Series 31, Bank of Lithuania.
    13. Yan Wu & Changsheng Xu & Ming Yi, 2022. "The Optimal Choice of Delayed Retirement Policy in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-21, October.
    14. Artur Rutkowski, 2019. "Evaluating an old-age voluntary saving scheme under incomplete rationality," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 3, pages 55-94.
    15. Laszlo Goerke & Michael Neugart, 2020. "Thorstein Veblen, Joan Robinson, and George Stigler (probably) never met: Social Preferences, Monopsony, and Government Intervention," IAAEU Discussion Papers 202001, Institute of Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    longevity; PAYG; retirement age; pension system reform; welfare;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C68 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computable General Equilibrium Models
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions

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