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Paradoxical effects of increasing the normal retirement age: A prospective evaluation

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  • Li, Yue

Abstract

A life-cycle model that incorporates both Disability Insurance (DI) and Old-Age Insurance (OAI) is developed to study Social Security reforms, and is compared to an alternative model without DI. The model with DI predicts that increasing the normal retirement age (NRA) causes a decrease in employment and an increase in DI receipt, and that the decrease of payroll tax revenue and the increase of DI expenses combined offset about 40% of the decrease of OAI expenses. These paradoxical effects of increasing the NRA are absent from the model without DI. I employ both models to search for reforms that will balance the government budget in an economy with an aging population, which has the demographics for the year 2100, and find that the required change in tax and benefit rules differ substantially across the two models.

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  • Li, Yue, 2018. "Paradoxical effects of increasing the normal retirement age: A prospective evaluation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 512-527.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:101:y:2018:i:c:p:512-527
    DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2017.10.018
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    Cited by:

    1. John Bailey Jones & Yue Li, 2023. "Social Security Reform with Heterogeneous Mortality," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 48, pages 320-344, April.
    2. Wallenius, Johanna, 2022. "R(a)ising employment of older individuals," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    3. Laun, Tobias & Markussen, Simen & Vigtel, Trond Christian & Wallenius, Johanna, 2019. "Health, longevity and retirement reform," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 123-157.
    4. Laun, Tobias & Markussen, Simen & Vigtel, Trond Christian & Wallenius, Johanna, 2018. "Health, Longevity and Pension Reform," Working Paper Series 2018:9, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    5. Sigurd Mølster Galaasen, 2021. "Pension Reform Disabled," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 123(4), pages 1227-1260, October.
    6. Devriendt, Willem & Heylen, Freddy & Jacobs, Arthur, 2023. "Coping with demographic change: macroeconomic performance and welfare inequality effects of public pension reform," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(3), pages 425-449, July.
    7. John Bailey Jones & Yue Li, 2023. "Social Security Reform with Heterogeneous Mortality," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 48, pages 320-344, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social Security; Labor supply; Disability; Retirement;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy

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