WAGES,HOURS OF WORK AND JOB SATISFACTION OF RETIREMENT‐AGE WORKERS*

I analyse, theoretically and empirically, the effects of pension benefits, family conditions and the personal characteristics of older individuals on their labour supply, wages, hours worked and job satisfaction, in the framework of the Nash bargaining condition whereby an older worker and a firm bargain over employment conditions such as wages, hours of work and job investment. It is stressed that as workers become older they tend to give greater priority to the number of hours worked, work environment and type of job than to wages, and try to improve these through job investment, even at the cost of lower wages.     

Overview of the Portuguese Three Pillar Pension System

In order to cope with alleged future financial problems, several changes were made to the design of the Portuguese pension system since 2000. The aim was to achieve the diversification of retirement income sources across providers, both public and private, across the three pillars: public, industry-wide, and personal, and also across the financing forms of pay-as-you-go and funded. This paper describes these changes and analyses the results regarding, principally, the weight of each pillar and the investment performance of both public pension reserves and private pension funds. The main finding is that, in effect, there is one substantial longstanding pillar, and that is the public system.     

Uncertain Pension Income and Household Saving

This paper investigates the relationship between household saving and pensions, and estimates both the displacement effect of pensions on private saving and the precautionary saving effect due to uncertainty in pension income. I estimate the savings equation implied by a simple life‐cycle model featuring income uncertainty using survey data for Dutch households, with subjective expectations on pension benefits and uncertainty. Exploiting exogenous variation due to pension fund performance, I find that households save significantly more due to uncertainty in pension income. Not controlling for uncertainty biases the estimated displacement effect of pensions on private savings towards zero.     

An inter-temporal general equilibrium analysis of the Australian age pension means test

The Australian age pension is somewhat unusual among developed countries in that it is means tested against both the claimant’s income and assets. While means testing of age pensions facilitates the aims of directing public pensions to those senior individuals most in need and of containing pension expenditures by governments, it also has the effect of changing the incentives of individuals to work and save. This paper examines the implications of the Australian means tested age pension for incentives of individuals to save and work, for government financial commitments and for the welfare of individuals. To this end, we develop an overlapping generations model of the Australian economy that incorporates the essential features of the Australian pension, superannuation and taxation policy settings and use it to explore the implications of several hypothetical policy changes that relax the means test of the age pension. Our results confirm that the existing means-tested, age pension represents a disincentive for some older Australians to work.     

INCOME REDISTRIBUTION IN URBAN CHINA BY SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM—AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS BASED ON ANNUAL AND LIFETIME INCOME

This study investigates the redistributive effect of social security reform in urban China using the nationally representative urban household surveys of 1995 and 2002. The main findings are as follows. First, public pension is the main income for the elderly in urban China. The majority of people aged 60 and over (72% in 1995 and 82% in 2002) receive a pension. Second, the social security system in urban China has increased the income of low‐income and older age groups and reduced the relative poverty rate. However, the redistributive effect did not offset the expanding income inequality, which resulted in the Gini coefficient of redistributed income in 2002 being higher than that in 1995. Third, during 1995 and 2002, both low‐income and high‐income groups received a positive net benefit from the social security system, but the net benefit increased with income. The Chinese social security system lacks progressivity in contribution, and does not favor the poor in terms of benefits. Fourth, assuming that the reformed policy was applied to public sector employees, the long‐term redistributive effect of the pension system for the working population, calculated using their lifetime income, is larger. (JEL D31, H55, I38)     

Pension and child care policies with endogenous fertility

This paper presents an examination of effects of a child allowance on fertility under a pay-as-you-go pension system. In these analyses, the child allowance is financed by taxation of two kinds: an income tax and a consumption tax. Comparative static analyses show that a child allowance financed by income tax revenues can always raise fertility. Similarly with income tax, a child allowance financed by consumption tax can always raise fertility. Furthermore, our paper presents examination of optimal child allowance and transfer for older people.     

Social Desirability of Earnings Tests

Abstract. In many countries, pension systems involve some form of earnings test; i.e. an individual's benefits are reduced if he has labor income. This paper examines whether or not such earnings tests emerge when pension system and income tax are optimally designed. We use a simple model with individuals differing both in productivity and in their health status. The working life of an individual has two 'endings': an official retirement age at which he starts drawing pension benefits (while possibly supplementing them with some labor income) and an effective age of retirement at which professional activity is completely given up. Weekly work time is endogenous, but constant in the period before official retirement and again constant (but possibly at a different level), after official retirement. Earnings tests mean that earnings are subject to a higher tax after official retirement than before. We show under which conditions earnings tests emerge both under a linear and under a non-linear tax scheme. In particular, we show that earnings tests will occur if heterogeneities in health or productivity are more significant after official retirement than before.     

Private saving in India and Malaysia compared: the roles of financial liberalization and expected pension benefits

In this article, we provide a comparative account of the evolution of private saving in India and Malaysia, and analyze how policy changes in the financial sector and pension system help explain differences in their saving performance. Using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds estimation procedure, we find a fairly robust long-run relationship between private saving and its determinants in both countries. Consistent with the predictions made in the life cycle model, our results indicate that higher income growth stimulates private saving and an increase in age dependency retards private saving. The results provide some support for the hypothesis that financial liberalization results in lower private saving in both countries. The evidence also indicates that expected pension benefits tend to stimulate private saving in India, but that the reverse is found in Malaysia.     

The health implications of social pensions: Evidence from China's new rural pension scheme

This paper estimates the causal effect of income on health outcomes of the elderly and investigates underlying mechanisms by exploiting an income change induced by the launch of China's New Rural Pension scheme (NRPS). Using this policy experiment, we address the endogeneity of pension income by applying a fixed-effect model with instrumental variable correction. The results reveal that pension enrollment and income from the NRPS both have had a significant beneficial impact on objective measures of physical health and cognitive function of the rural elderly. Pension recipients respond to the newly acquired pension income in multiple ways: improved nutrition intake, better accessibility to health care, increased informal care, increased leisure activities, and better self-perceived relative economic situation. These in turn act as channels from pension income to health outcomes of the Chinese rural elderly.     

社会养老保险与老年人空巢居住:来自北京市的证据

分析了北京市社会养老保险与老年人空巢居住之间的关系。老年人社会养老保险收入越高,越倾向空巢居住,即独居或只与配偶居住。但是,如果老年人日常生活需要照料,那么他们将倾向与子女居住而不会选择空巢居住,即使社会养老保险收入比较高。     

Sexual orientation,work, and income in Canada

Abstract. We provide the first evidence on sexual orientation and economic outcomes in Canada using confidential data that ask adults a direct question about their sexual orientation. Gay men have 12% lower personal incomes and lesbians have 15% higher personal incomes than otherwise similar heterosexual men and women, respectively. Different labour force patterns can account for some of the income differentials. We also document large differences in educational attainment, childrearing, and urbanicity that generally mirror patterns found in the US. Finally, we show that applying couples‐based approaches common in this literature greatly overstates the magnitudes of gay/straight income gaps.     

A SAVINGS SUBSIDISATION SYSTEM IN A MODEL OF ENDOGENOUS FERTILITY AND ENDOGENOUS GROWTH: AN EXTENSION OF WIGGER (1999)

Population ageing is now an established demographic characteristic of many economies. Economists working in the endogenous growth theory tradition have sought to model the relationship between public pensions, financed on a 'Pay-As-You-Go' basis, and the growth in per capita incomes. The resultant intergenerational wealth redistribution from young to older people seems to decrease private savings, diminish capital accumulation, and lower the growth of per capita incomes. The underlying transmission mechanism appears to be a crowding out effect in private capital markets contingent upon the introduction of public pension systems. A growing literature exists on the interrelationships between public pension schemes, fertility rates and endogenous growth. Following Wigger's (1999) pioneering overlapping generations endogenous growth model, we extend this model to examine the effects of a savings subsidisation system on the rate of per capita income growth, fertility and voluntary intrafamily wealth transfers, where parents view children both as an insurance good and a consumption good. Moreover, children care about the consumption levels of their parents. An increase in contributions to a savings subsidised public pension scheme will crowd out private intergenerational transfers from the young to the old and thereby negate the usefulness of children as an insurance good.     

二次分配对城镇居民收入差距的调节效果分析——基于2007—2010年安徽省城镇住户调查数据

本文利用安徽省城镇住户调查数据探讨了二次分配对城镇居民收入差距的调节效果。研究表明,个人所得税和最低生活保障制度对收入差距的调节效果微乎其微;社会保障支出在一定程度上缩小了可支配收入的基尼系数,但是考虑到单位对住房公积金、养老保险、医疗保险的配套支出,最终的结果扩大了城镇居民的收入差距;目前,养老金和退休金对调节收入差距的效果最为显著,但是养老金和退休金的收入差距也比较大。     

Hiring Older Employees: Do the Age Limits of Early Retirement and the Contribution Rates of Firms Matter?

We examine the effects of a Finnish pension reform on firms' incentives to hire older employees. The reform restricted the eligibility ages for early retirement and changed the size‐related contribution rates of firms. According to our theoretical model, the positive effect on the values of new hires extends to age groups younger than those directly affected by the reform, and the effects are strongest in the largest firms. These model predictions were confirmed in a difference‐in‐difference‐in‐differences analysis on the probability of the hiring of workers of different ages in firms of different sizes.     

The role of personality traits in pension decisions: findings and policy recommendations

Many countries need to stimulate pension participation and contribution to ensure their citizens are prepared adequately for retirement. Identifying at-risk groups with tendencies of not joining pension plans will help governments target strategies to improve pension awareness and participation. This study investigates the role of personality traits in pension decision making using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study. Our results demonstrate that Extraversion significantly correlates with non-participation in private pensions, including both employer run and personal pensions. Individuals who are high in Conscientiousness are more likely to participate and pay more into personal pensions. Openness to experience is negatively correlated with saving via personal pensions. Agreeableness and Extraversion correlate inversely with the amount contributed to personal plans. This paper discusses our findings in detail and offers policy implications which may help promote pension participation and ease the problem of old age poverty.     

Backing out of private pension provision: lessons from Germany

Financing pensions in the EU is a challenge. Many EU countries introduced private pension schemes to compensate declining public pension levels due to reforms made necessary by demographic change. In 2001, Germany introduced the Riester pension. Ten years after introduction the prevalence rate of this voluntary private pension scheme approximates 37 %. However, numerous criticisms raise doubts that the market for Riester products is transparent. Using the 2010 German SAVE survey, this article investigates terminated and dormant Riester contracts on a household level for the first time. Respectively 14.5 and 12.5 % of households who own or have owned a Riester contract terminated or set dormant their contract. We find that around 45 % of terminated or dormant Riester contracts are caused at least partly by product-related reasons, which is significantly higher than for endowment life insurance contracts. The uptake of a new contract after a termination is more likely if a termination is product-related. Nevertheless, after a termination 73 % of households do not sign a new contract, which can have serious long-term consequences for old-age income. Households with low income, low financial wealth or low pension literacy are more likely to have terminated or dormant contracts. Low income and low financial wealth households also have the lowest prevalence rate of Riester contracts and are at higher risk of old-age poverty.     

Child labor and schooling responses to anticipated income in South Africa

Forward looking, unconstrained households make child labor and schooling decisions considering their permanent income and weighing the relative returns to child time in various potential activities. The timing of anticipated changes in income should have no effect on child labor and schooling in a setting where households can borrow against permanent income. However, this study documents large increases in schooling attendance and declines in total hours worked when black South African families become eligible for fully anticipatable social pension income. As an explanation, the data are most consistent with liquidity constraints for black elder males forcing rural families into less schooling for boys than they would choose absent the constraint, perhaps because of schooling costs.     

我国基本养老保险扩面的收入分配效应研究

文章基于一般均衡分析框架,通过构建“统账结合”制基本养老保险的异质性跨期交叠一般均衡动态模型,引入国发〔2005〕38号文的主要内容,利用政策仿真、参数估值和敏感性检验等方法,重点研究了养老保险制度覆盖面扩展的收入分配和再分配效应,并进行了理论推导和实证测算。结果发现：（1）我国基本养老保险扩面具有明显的收入分配和再分配效应,且再分配效应是累进的,发生了从城镇企业职工为代表的高收入者向以灵活就业人员和农民工为代表的低收入者的收入转移;（2）个人账户发挥了平滑作用,有利于改善不同类型劳动者终生的收入分配,但不利于收入再分配的改善;（3）社会统筹账户具有较强的收入再分配效应,有利于改善不同类型劳动者的收入再分配,缩小收入差距。参数敏感性检验表明结论是稳健的。因此,进一步优化社会统筹账户有利于减小收入不平等。     

基于公共清算所的个人账户养老基金管理模式研究

在分析个人账户基金管理的委托人职责缺失、管理效率低下、基金保值增值难等问题的基础上.通过对个人账户管理模式和投资决策模式的分析,以及结合产权理论与委托代理理论,构建一种新的个人账户基金管理模式,即公私结合管理模式——中央层面成立公共清算机构负责基金管理,在旗下成立多家个人账户基金投资公司,负责个人账户基金的投资运营.这对养老基金的保值增值以及养老金制度的可持续发展都具有深远意义.     

Retirement expectations, pension reforms, and their impact on private wealth accumulation

We estimate the effect of pension reforms on households' expectations of retirement outcomes and private wealth accumulation decisions exploiting a decade of intense Italian pension reforms as a source of exogenous variation in expected pension wealth. The Survey of Household Income and Wealth, a large random sample of the Italian population, elicits expectations of the age at which workers expect to retire and of the ratio of pension benefits to pre-retirement income between 1989 and 2002. We find that workers have revised expectations in the direction suggested by the reform and that there is substantial offset between private wealth and perceived pension wealth, particularly by workers that are better informed about their pension wealth.