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Too Old to Work, Too Young to Retire?

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Author Info
Ichino, Andrea (Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Universitá di Bologna, Bologna, Italy)
Schwerdt, Guido (Department Human Capital and Innovation, Ifo Institute for Economic Research, Munich, Germany)
Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf (Department of Economics, University of Linz, Linz, Austria, and Department of Economics and Finance, Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna, Austria)
Zweimüller, Josef (Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland)

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Abstract

We use firm closure data for Austria 1978-1998 to investigate the effect of age on employment prospects. We rely on exact matching to compare workers displaced by firm closure with similar non-displaced workers. We then use a difference-in-difference strategy to analyze employment and earnings of older relative to prime-age workers in the displacement and non-displacement groups. Results suggest that immediately after plant closure the old have lower re-employment probabilities as compared to prime-age workers but later they catch up. While among the young the employment prospects of the displaced remain persistently different from those of the non-displaced, among the old the effect of displacement fades away, and actually disappears even immediately after plant closure when the effect of tenure based severance payment is controlled for. Our evidence suggests that increasing the retirement age does not necessarily produce individuals who are "too old to work but too young to retire".

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File URL: http://www.ihs.ac.at/publications/eco/es-220.pdf
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for Advanced Studies in its series Economics Series with number 220.

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Length: 38 pages
Date of creation: Oct 2007
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Handle: RePEc:ihs:ihsesp:220

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Related research
Keywords: Aging; Employability; Plant closures; Matching;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped
J65 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Unemployment Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Vegard Skirbekk, 2003. "Age and individual productivity: a literature survey," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2003-028, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  2. Vegard Skirbekk, 2004. "Age and Individual Productivity: A Literature Survey," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 1(1), pages 133-153. [Downloadable!]
  3. Stevens, Ann Huff, 1997. "Persistent Effects of Job Displacement: The Importance of Multiple Job Losses," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(1), pages 165-88, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Ruhm, Christopher J, 1991. "Are Workers Permanently Scarred by Job Displacements?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(1), pages 319-24, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Francesco Daveri & Mika Maliranta, 2007. "Age, seniority and labour costs: lessons from the Finnish IT revolution," Economic Policy, CEPR, CES, MSH, vol. 22, pages 117-175, 01. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Guido Schwerdt, 2007. "Labor Turnover before Plant Closure:'Leaving the sinking ship' vs. 'Captain throwing ballast overboard'," Economics Working Papers ECO2007/22, European University Institute. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. John C. Haltiwanger & Julia I. Lane & James R. Spletzer, 1999. "Productivity Differences across Employers: The Roles of Employer Size, Age, and Human Capital," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 94-98, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Ahituv, Avner & Zeira, Joseph, 2000. "Technical Progress and Early Retirement," CEPR Discussion Papers 2614, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Judith K. Hellerstein & David Neumark, 2004. "Production Function and Wage Equation Estimation with Heterogeneous Labor: Evidence from a New Matched Employer-Employee Data Set," NBER Working Papers 10325, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Sharon M. Oster & Daniel S. Hamermesh, 1998. "Aging And Productivity Among Economists," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(1), pages 154-156, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Bartel, Ann P & Sicherman, Nachum, 1993. "Technological Change and Retirement Decisions of Older Workers," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 11(1), pages 162-83, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Jacobson, Louis S & LaLonde, Robert J & Sullivan, Daniel G, 1993. "Earnings Losses of Displaced Workers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(4), pages 685-709, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Card, David & Sullivan, Daniel G, 1988. "Measuring the Effect of Subsidized Training Programs on Movements in and out of Employment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(3), pages 497-530, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Chan, Sewin & Stevens, Ann Huff, 2001. "Job Loss and Employment Patterns of Older Workers," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(2), pages 484-521, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Rafael Lalive & Jan Van Ours & Josef Zweimüller, 2006. "How Changes in Financial Incentives Affect the Duration of Unemployment," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 73(4), pages 1009-1038, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  16. Lazear, Edward P, 1979. "Why Is There Mandatory Retirement?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(6), pages 1261-84, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. David Card & Raj Chetty & Andrea Weber, 2006. "Cash-on-Hand and Competing Models of Intertemporal Behavior: New Evidence from the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 12639, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Del Bono, Emilia & Weber, Andrea & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf, 2008. "Clash of Career and Family. Fertility Decisions after Job Displacement," Economics Series 222, Institute for Advanced Studies. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Mario Schnalzenberger & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, 2008. "Layoff Tax and the Employment of the Elderly," Economics working papers 2008-19, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. repec:ese:iserwp: is not listed on IDEAS
  4. Peter Huber & Michael Pfaffermayr, 2007. "The Anatomy of the Firm Size Distribution: The Evolution of its Variance and Skewness," WIFO Working Papers 295, WIFO. [Downloadable!]
  5. Anzelika Zaiceva, 2007. "East-West Migration and Gender: Is there a "Double Disadvantage" vis-à-vis Stayers?," IZA Discussion Papers 2810, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  6. Guido Schwerdt, 2008. "Labor Turnover before Plant Closure: ‘Leaving the Sinking Ship’ vs. ‘Captain Throwing Ballast Overboard’," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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