IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mrr/papers/wp026.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Retirement Behavior of Federal Civil Service Workers

Author

Listed:
  • Beth Asch

    (RAND)

  • Steve Haider

    (RAND)

  • Julie Zissimopoulos

    (RAND)

Abstract

We examine the retirement behavior of federal civil service workers. This research contributes to the literature that more generally examines how retirement behavior responds to financial incentives. The civil service workers in our study provide an interesting case study because they do not participate in the Social Security system, they are only covered by a defined benefit pension plan, and this pension plan is significantly different from the Social Security system in the structure of its incentives. Moreover, there is widespread concern among policy makers of a pending retirement crisis in the federal civil service. Relying on an option value framework, our main results suggest that federal civil service workers respond to their retirement incentives in a manner that is quite similar to the responses that others have found looking at much different retirement systems. Such a result provides important additional evidence regarding the generality of previous results. On the other hand, unlike previous studies, we find little evidence of a spike in the retirement rate at age 65, nor do we find much evidence of “excess retirements” or a large fraction of retirements at age 65 that are unexplained by our financial incentive model. While past studies have attributed this age 65 effect to “social norms,” those norms do not seem important to the federal civil service workers we study.

Suggested Citation

  • Beth Asch & Steve Haider & Julie Zissimopoulos, 2002. "The Retirement Behavior of Federal Civil Service Workers," Working Papers wp026, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:mrr:papers:wp026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://mrdrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/Papers/pdf/wp026.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Courtney Coile & Jonathan Gruber, 2001. "Social Security Incentives for Retirement," NBER Chapters, in: Themes in the Economics of Aging, pages 311-354, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. John Ausink & David A. Wise, 1996. "The Military Pension, Compensation, and Retirement of U.S. Air Force Pilots," NBER Chapters, in: Advances in the Economics of Aging, pages 83-114, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. David A. Wise, 1996. "Advances in the Economics of Aging," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number wise96-1.
    4. Coile Courtney, 2004. "Retirement Incentives and Couples' Retirement Decisions," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 1-30, July.
    5. Courtney Coile & Jonathan Gruber, 2000. "Social Security and Retirement," NBER Working Papers 7830, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michaud, P.C. & Vermeulen, F.M.P., 2004. "A Collective Retirement Model : Identification and Estimation in the Presence of Externalities," Other publications TiSEM fb0bfe30-b1e3-4b61-9bf2-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Andrew Samwick & David A. Wise, 2003. "Option Value Estimation with Health and Retirement Study Data," NBER Chapters, in: Labor Markets and Firm Benefit Policies in Japan and the United States, pages 205-228, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Asch, Beth & Haider, Steven J. & Zissimopoulos, Julie, 2005. "Financial incentives and retirement: evidence from federal civil service workers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2-3), pages 427-440, February.
    4. Bhattacharya, Joydeep & Reed, Robert R., 2002. "Age-specific employment policies," ISU General Staff Papers 200211050800001187, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    5. Courtney Coile & Jonathan Gruber, 2004. "The Effect of Social Security on Retirement in the United States," NBER Chapters, in: Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: Micro-Estimation, pages 691-730, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Blundell, R. & French, E. & Tetlow, G., 2016. "Retirement Incentives and Labor Supply," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 457-566, Elsevier.
    7. Piekkola, Hannu & Deschryvere, Matthias, 2004. "Retirement Decisions and Option Values: Their Application Regarding Finland," Discussion Papers 951, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    8. Hanel, Barbara & Riphahn, Regina T., 2012. "The timing of retirement — New evidence from Swiss female workers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 718-728.
    9. Deschryvere, Matthias, 2004. "Labour Force Behavior of Elderly Two Adult Households: Evidence from EU-countries," Discussion Papers 933, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    10. repec:ehu:dfaeii:6723 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Fabio Pammolli & Pietro Rizza & Nicola Carmine Salerno, 2004. "Regole pensionistiche e incentivi al prolungamento della vita lavorativa: analisi del caso italiano," Working Papers CERM 06-2004, Competitività, Regole, Mercati (CERM).
    12. Kanika Kapur & Jeannette Rogowski, 2006. "Love or Money? Health Insurance and Retirement Among Married Couples," NBER Working Papers 12273, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Niels Vermeer & Maarten Rooij & Daniel Vuuren, 2019. "Retirement Age Preferences: The Role of Social Interactions and Anchoring at the Statutory Retirement Age," De Economist, Springer, vol. 167(4), pages 307-345, December.
    14. Agar Brugiavini & Franco Peracchi & David A. Wise, 2002. "Pensions and Retirement Incentives. A Tale of Three Countries: Italy, Spain and the USA," Giornale degli Economisti, GDE (Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia), Bocconi University, vol. 61(2), pages 131-169, December.
    15. Michele Belloni & Rob Alessie, 2008. "The Importance of Financial Incentives on Retirement Choices," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 08-052/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    16. Moulton, Jeremy Grant & Stevens, Ann Huff, 2015. "Reconsidering the Social Security Notch and retirement: Wealth and incentive effects," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 65-68.
    17. Barbara Hanel & Regina Riphahn, 2006. "Financial Incentives and the Timing of Retirement: Evidence from Switzerland," Working Papers 009, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    18. Barbara Hanel, 2010. "Disability Pensions and Labor Supply," Working Papers 086, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    19. John Laitner, 2003. "Labor Supply Responses to Social Security," Working Papers wp050, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    20. Coile Courtney, 2004. "Retirement Incentives and Couples' Retirement Decisions," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 1-30, July.
    21. Michael Baker & Jonathan Gruber & Kevin Milligan, 2003. "The retirement incentive effects of Canada's Income Security programs," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 36(2), pages 261-290, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mrr:papers:wp026. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MRRC Administrator (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/isumius.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.