Emigration Intentions: Mere Words or True Plans? Explaining International Migration Intentions and Behavior

Do people follow up on their intentions? In this paper we confront the emigration intentions formed by inhabitants of the Netherlands during the year 2004-2005 and the emigration steps they took in the subsequent two years. Three results stand out. First, it appears that intentions are good predictors of future emigration: 24 percent of those who had stated an intention to emigrate have actually emigrated within two years time. Second, within the group of potential emigrants, those who have emigrated and those who have not yet emigrated, do not differ much from each other. The potential emigrants who have not yet emigrated are in poorer health. Third, the forces that trigger emigration intentions are also the same forces that make people actually move.emigration;intentions;behavior;public domain

The employer's perspective on retirement

In this chapter we discuss the literature with respect to the role of employers in retirement processes of older workers and provide suggestions for future research. In the first part of this chapter we will review existing theoretical insights regarding the employers’ actions and attitudes toward older workers and retirement. In the next section we will discuss empirical findings with regard to age related stereotypes in the workplace and age norms with respect to retirement and present some results form an international comparative employer study. We conclude with a section on the management of retirement processes, focussing on the exit and hiring of older workers.

Are Pension Savings sufficient? Perceptions and Expectations of American and Dutch Workers

Are retirement savings sufficient to finance a good pension income? This highly uncertain and subjective dimension of life cycle decision making is assessed among married working individuals using an identical survey distributed to Dutch and American workers in 2007. Despite marked differences in expected and needed pension replacement rates - where the Dutch replacement rates are systematically higher than the American rates - the perceived savings adequacy is more or less the same across Dutch and American workers. Moreover, individuals’ perceived savings adequacy was found to be influenced by the three groups of factors: institutional forces, social forces and psychological dispositions. This study shows that differences in the mind set of American workers plays a far larger role in explaining differences in perceptions of savings adequacy than it does in the Netherlands.retirement;savings;planning;pension funds

How Skill Requirements Affect the Likelihood of Recruitment of Older Workers in Poland: The Indirect Role of Age Stereotypes

This article analyses the role of age stereotypes in the employability of older people. Unlike in existing studies, we shift emphasis from a direct consideration of stereotypes, focusing instead on skill requirements during recruitment. Using five waves of an employer survey from Poland, we assess how the likelihood of recruiting people over 50 years old depends on the skill requirements of the post. This study uses a real-life framework by referring to existing vacancies and actual requirements that reflect labour demands at the scale of an entire national labour market. The results suggest that some requirements lead to age bias during recruitment, and the chances of an older candidate being hired are especially hindered in jobs requiring computer, physical, social, creative and training skills. By illustrating an indirect link between age stereotypes and age discrimination, this study contributes to an understanding of the mechanisms that reduce employability of older people

Decision Making in the Pension Fund Board Room: An Experiment with Dutch Pension Fund Trustees

We ask how pension fund trustees deal with the booms and busts that funds encounter, and to what extent the decisions of pension fund trustees are affected by behavioral biases. We examine these issues by using a vignette-method field experiment among Dutch pension fund trustees. We find that trustees display choices that accord with the phenomenon of loss aversion and that trustees allow their choices to be affected by the forces of social comparison: the reserve position of their fund compared to the position of other funds has a significant influence in choosing a pension fund policy mix.pension funds;finance;governance;behavioral economics