Increasing the retirement age: How firms adjust workforce and wages

This paper studies firm adjustments in response to a working life extension of older female employees. Specifically, I exploit the German 1999 pension reform that eliminated an early retirement pathway for women, causing an increase in their early retirement age by three years for those born after January 1, 1952. Using high-quality linked employer-employee data and a difference-in-differences event study design, I show that firms that employed affected women substantially increased their number of retained female employees aged 60-62. However, this retention resulted in a significant reduction in the number of new hires and in a modest decline in the number of wage increases among incumbent employees. Further analyses suggest that the magnitude and type of firm adjustment largely depend on the firm-specific human capital required for the respective occupation.