IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jpemac/doi10.1086-736925.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Breaking the Implicit Contract: Using Pension Freezes to Study Lifetime Labor Supply

Author

Listed:
  • Dhiren Patki

Abstract

This paper studies the elimination of defined benefit pensions and subsequent adoption of 401(k) plans by US employers. Using matched employer-employee data linked to thousands of firm-level retirement plan changes, it shows that unexpected losses in future compensation engendered by pension plan transitions induce premature retirement for some workers and delayed retirement for others. Heterogeneity in retirement behavior stems from differences in the relative strength of substitution and wealth effects. Exploiting treatment effects as estimation targets, it fits a model of retirement and uses the model to quantify welfare costs and labor supply effects of changes in workplace pension structure.

Suggested Citation

  • Dhiren Patki, 2025. "Breaking the Implicit Contract: Using Pension Freezes to Study Lifetime Labor Supply," Journal of Political Economy Macroeconomics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(3), pages 305-342.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jpemac:doi:10.1086/736925
    DOI: 10.1086/736925
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/736925
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/736925
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/736925?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    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:ucp:jpemac:doi:10.1086/736925. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JPEMA .

    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.