Voluntary and involuntary retirement decision : does real wage rigidity affects the effectiveness of pension reforms ?

In this paper, we integrate the retirement deadline taking into account both labor demand and labor supply specificities. This approach reveals that firms' employment decisions play an active role in the early retirement decision. We show that, in a walrasian economy, social security reforms aimed at delaying the retirement age by introducing actuarially fair adjustments are particularly powerful to stimulate the employment of older workers. However, if real wages are rigid, two situations must be distinguished. First, if the wage is lower than its walrasian value, the separation date is determined by workers, fair adjustments would push back the retirement age. In contrast, when the wage exceeds its walrasian rate, the separation date is determined by firms. Trying to increase the rate of employment of older workers by introducing pension incentives seems to be an unattainable goal. Therefore, there is a good reason for focusing primarily on labor demand. In this case, it appears that paying a subsidy to firms is the best policy for attaining the optimal retirement age.Retirement age, Human capital investment, Real wage rigidity, Labor market reform

Incentive Schemes to Delay Retirement and the Equilibrium Interplay with Human Capital Investment

This article introduces the role of labor demand of the elderly in the analysis of retirement decisions. We integrate both human capital formation and up-dating costs on older workers' job and explore how Social Security system affects human capital investment and retirement decisions. We show that, from the worker''s point of view, human capital investment and retirement age decisions are interdependent and positively related. On the one hand, an actuarially unfair pay-as-you-go system imposes a tax on postponed retirement which encourages early retirement, thus reducing incentives to invest in human capital. On the other hand, the pension system imposes a tax on training intensity. As a result, workers have less incentives to continue working. From the firm''s point of view, this implies an indirect tax on labor demand due to the decrease in older workers'' productivity. We then examine the pattern of the optimal policies according to flexibility versus rigidity of wages.

Voluntary and involuntary retirement decision : does real wage rigidity affects the effectiveness of pension reforms ?

In this paper, we integrate the retirement deadline taking into account both labor demand and labor supply specificities. This approach reveals that firms' employment decisions play an active role in the early retirement decision. We show that, in a walrasian economy, social security reforms aimed at delaying the retirement age by introducing actuarially fair adjustments are particularly powerful to stimulate the employment of older workers. However, if real wages are rigid, two situations must be distinguished. First, if the wage is lower than its walrasian value, the separation date is determined by workers, fair adjustments would push back the retirement age. In contrast, when the wage exceeds its walrasian rate, the separation date is determined by firms. Trying to increase the rate of employment of older workers by introducing pension incentives seems to be an unattainable goal. Therefore, there is a good reason for focusing primarily on labor demand. In this case, it appears that paying a subsidy to firms is the best policy for attaining the optimal retirement age

Voluntary and involuntary retirement decision : does real wage rigidity affects the effectiveness of pension reforms ?

In this paper, we integrate the retirement deadline taking into account both labor demand and labor supply specificities. This approach reveals that firms' employment decisions play an active role in the early retirement decision. We show that, in a walrasian economy, social security reforms aimed at delaying the retirement age by introducing actuarially fair adjustments are particularly powerful to stimulate the employment of older workers. However, if real wages are rigid, two situations must be distinguished. First, if the wage is lower than its walrasian value, the separation date is determined by workers, fair adjustments would push back the retirement age. In contrast, when the wage exceeds its walrasian rate, the separation date is determined by firms. Trying to increase the rate of employment of older workers by introducing pension incentives seems to be an unattainable goal. Therefore, there is a good reason for focusing primarily on labor demand. In this case, it appears that paying a subsidy to firms is the best policy for attaining the optimal retirement age

La proximité de l'âge de la retraite. Quels effets sur l'accumulation du capital humain et sur la recherche d'emploi ?

Beyond its negative impact on the employment rate of elder workers, we show in this paper that a short distance to the retirement age explains also the low investment in training. This supports the policies enlarging the retirement age: an increase of the incentive to delay the retirement age not only leads to an raise of the employment rate of elderly but also to promote a better training, upgrading of labor enhances the gains of working. An original equilibrium search model with both endogenous retirement and human capital investment choices gives the theoretical foundation whereas an estimation based an French labor survey provides some empirical support to our approach. Classification JEL : J14, J24, J26, I20