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Permanent Wage Cost Subsidies for Older Workers: An Effective Tool for Increasing Working Time and Postponing Early Retirement?

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  • Albanese, Andrea

    (LISER)

  • Cockx, Bart

    (Ghent University)

Abstract

In several OECD countries age-targeted wage subsidies have been introduced to increase the employment of older workers, but evidence on their effectiveness is scarce. This paper examines the effects of a permanent wage cost subsidy in Belgium on the employment rate, working time and hourly wage. We estimate these effects by integrating Inverse Probability Weighting in a, possibly trend-adjusted, Difference-in-Differences of endogenously sampled repeated cross sections. We find small positive short-run impacts on working time and larger ones on the employment rate, but only for employees at high risk of leaving to early retirement. The wage is not affected.

Suggested Citation

  • Albanese, Andrea & Cockx, Bart, 2015. "Permanent Wage Cost Subsidies for Older Workers: An Effective Tool for Increasing Working Time and Postponing Early Retirement?," IZA Discussion Papers 8988, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8988
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    2. Muriel Dejemeppe & Catherine Smith & Bruno der Linden, 2015. "Did the Intergenerational Solidarity Pact increase the employment rate of older workers in Belgium? A macro-econometric evaluation," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-23, December.
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    9. Baert, Stijn & Norga, Jennifer & Thuy, Yannick & Van Hecke, Marieke, 2016. "Getting grey hairs in the labour market. An alternative experiment on age discrimination," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 86-101.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    wage cost subsidies; older workers; weighted Difference-in-Differences; endogenous sampling;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs

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