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The Institutional Determinants of Early Retirement in Europe

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  • Justina A.V. Fischer
  • Alfonso Sousa-Poza

Abstract

Low fertility rates combined with increases in early retirement pose a serious challenge to the sustainability of social security systems in most industrialized countries. Therefore, it is important for policy makers to understand the determinants of early retirement and especially the role that institutional factors play in the retirement decision. However, analyzing such factors ideally requires international microdata, which have in the past been largely unavailable. To fill this void, this paper investigates early retirement determinants across several European countries using the rich 2005 SHARE (Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe) microdataset, which produces more precise estimates of the effects of institutional and economic factors like pension systems, unemployment, and employment protection legislation. The analysis shows that pension systems offering generous early retirement options encourage early departure from the labor market. In addition, pension wealth accrual rate exerts a greater influence on early retirement decisions than does the average replacement rate, while stricter employment protection legislation has no significant impact.

Suggested Citation

  • Justina A.V. Fischer & Alfonso Sousa-Poza, 2006. "The Institutional Determinants of Early Retirement in Europe," University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2006 2006-08, Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen.
    • Handle: RePEc:usg:dp2006:2006-08
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Ronald Hagan & Andrew M. Jones & Nigel Rice, 2009. "Health and Retirement in Europe," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 6(10), pages 1-20, October.
    2. Carmen Petrovici & Jörg Neugschwender, 2014. "Who can (still) afford to retire early? Cross-country comparison of incomes of senior workers and young retirees using LIS data for 2007 & 2010," LIS Working papers 608, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    3. Ashok Thomas & Luca Spataro, 2013. "Pension funds and Market Efficiency: A review," Discussion Papers 2013/164, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    4. Brenda Gannon & Jennifer Roberts, 2011. "Part-time work and health among older workers in Ireland and Britain," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(30), pages 4749-4757.
    5. Ronald Wipplinger & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, 2007. "Pensionszugang in Österreich im internationalen Vergleich," Economics working papers 2007-07, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    6. Sergi Jiménez Martín & Judit Vall Castello, 2009. "Business Cycle Effects on Labour Force Transitions for Older People in Spain," Working Papers 2009-25, FEDEA.
    7. Freudenberg, Christoph & Laub, Natalie & Sutor, Tim, 2018. "Pension decrement rates across Europe – Are they too low?," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 12(C), pages 35-45.
    8. Monika Riedel & Helmut Hofer, 2013. "Determinants of the Transition from Work into Retirement," NRN working papers 2013-10, The Austrian Center for Labor Economics and the Analysis of the Welfare State, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    9. Sascha Breij & Martijn Huisman & Dorly J. H. Deeg, 2020. "Educational differences in macro-level determinants of early exit from paid work: a multilevel analysis of 14 European countries," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 217-227, June.
    10. Ellen Jaldestad & Andrea Eriksson & Philip Blom & Britt Östlund, 2021. "Factors Influencing Retirement Decisions among Blue-Collar Workers in a Global Manufacturing Company—Implications for Age Management from A System Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-22, October.
    11. Ulrike Huemer & Kristina Budimir & Rainer Eppel, 2010. "Soziale Sicherungssysteme und Arbeitsmarktperformanz in der EU. Mikroökonometrische Analyse," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 41154.
    12. Sergi Jimenez-Martin & Judit Castello, 2013. "Business cycle and spillover effects on pre-retirement behavior in Spain," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-23, December.
    13. Monika Riedel & Helmut Hofer & Birgit Wögerbauer, 2015. "Determinants for the transition from work into retirement in Europe," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-19, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Early Retirement; Pensions; Pensions System; Employment Protection;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions

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