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The Importance of Financial Incentives on Retirement Choices: New Evidence for Italy

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  • M. Belloni
  • R. Alessie

Abstract

This study exploits a new dataset in order to quantify the effect of financial incentives on retirement choices. This dataset contains - for the first time in Italy -information on seniority. In accordance with the general finding in Gruber and Wise (2004), we find that financial incentives have an effect on retirement. The effect goes in the expected direction; when employees become eligible for pension benefits the change in financial incentives they experience is so high that their retirement probability increases in a sizable way.We also find that the procedure to impute seniority used in previous studies leads to a sizable measurement error. Due to this measurement error, the key parameters of the model are inconsistently estimated. Our sensitivity analysis suggests that the lack of appropriate information on seniority is an important reason for the unclear evidence so far obtained in retirement studies for Italy.

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  • M. Belloni & R. Alessie, 2008. "The Importance of Financial Incentives on Retirement Choices: New Evidence for Italy," Working Papers 08-10, Utrecht School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:use:tkiwps:0810
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    Cited by:

    1. Decoster, André & Capéau, Bart, 2016. "Getting tired of work, or re-tiring in absence of decent job opportunities? Some insights from an estimated Random Utility/Random Opportunity model on Belgian data," EUROMOD Working Papers EM4/16, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    2. García-Pérez, J. Ignacio & Jiménez-Martín, Sergi & Sánchez-Martín, Alfonso R., 2013. "Retirement incentives, individual heterogeneity and labor transitions of employed and unemployed workers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 106-120.
    3. C Machado & Miguel Portela, 2014. "Hours of work and retirement behaviour," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-22, December.
    4. Pilar García-Gómez & Sílvia Garcia-Mandicó & Sergi Jiménez-Martín & Judit Vall-Castelló, 2018. "Trends in Employment and Social Security Incentives in the Spanish Pension System, 1980–2016," NBER Chapters, in: Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: Reforms and Retirement Incentives, pages 317-371, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Vera Rivera, Carolina, 2020. "Modelo de riesgo competitivo en los “Senior Workers”: evidencia del mercado laboral chileno," Revista Latinoamericana de Desarrollo Economico, Carrera de Economía de la Universidad Católica Boliviana (UCB) "San Pablo", issue 33, pages 143-179, May.
    6. Flavia Coda Moscarola & Riccardo Calcagno & Elsa Fornero, 2017. "oo busy to stay at work. How willing are Italian workers “to pay†for earlier retirement?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(3), pages 1694-1707.
    7. Pilar Garcia-Gomez & Titus J. Galama & Eddy van Doorslaer & Angel Lopez-Nicolas, 2017. "Interactions Between Financial Incentives and Health in the Early Retirement Decision," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 17-044/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    8. Flavia Coda Moscarola & Elsa Fornero & Steinar Strøm, 2016. "Absenteeism, childcare and the effectiveness of pension reforms," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-18, December.
    9. Demirguc-Kunt,Asli & Klapper,Leora & Panos,Georgios A., 2016. "Saving for old age," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7693, The World Bank.
    10. Michele Belloni & Rob Alessie, 2013. "Retirement Choices in Italy: What an Option Value Model Tells Us," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 75(4), pages 499-527, August.
    11. Michele Belloni & Rob Alessie & Adriaan Kalwij & Chiara Marinacci, 2012. "Lifetime income and old age mortality risk in Italy over two decades," Working Papers 2012: 29, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    12. Danzer, Alexander M., 2010. "Retirement Responses to a Generous Pension Reform: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Eastern Europe," IZA Discussion Papers 4726, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. 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.
    14. Denis Fougère & Pierre Gouëdard, 2021. "The effects of financial incentives and disincentives on teachers' retirement decisions: Evidence from the 2003 French pension reform," Working Papers hal-03465859, HAL.
    15. Peri, Giovanni & Romiti, Agnese & Rossi, Mariacristina, 2015. "Immigrants, domestic labor and women's retirement decisions," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 18-34.
    16. Agnese Romiti & Maria Cristina Rossi, 2011. "Should we Retire Earlier in order to Look After our Parents? The Role of immigrants," CeRP Working Papers 124, Center for Research on Pensions and Welfare Policies, Turin (Italy).
    17. Jun, Hankyung, 2020. "Social security and retirement in fast-aging middle-income countries: Evidence from Korea," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    18. Flavia Coda Moscarola & Margherita Borella, 2015. "The 2011 Pension Reform in Italy and its Effects on Current and Future Retirees," CeRP Working Papers 151, Center for Research on Pensions and Welfare Policies, Turin (Italy).
    19. Fougère, Denis & Gouëdard, Pierre, 2021. "The effects of financial incentives and disincentives on teachers' retirement decisions: Evidence from the 2003 French pension reform," CEPR Discussion Papers 16673, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Michele Belloni & Rob Alessie & Adriaan Kalwij & Chiara Marinacci, 2013. "Lifetime income and old age mortality risk in Italy over two decades," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 29(45), pages 1261-1298.
    21. Peri, Giovanni & Romiti, Agnese & Rossi, Mariacristina, 2013. "Immigrants, Household Production and Women's Retirement," IZA Discussion Papers 7549, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    Keywords

    retirement; social security wealth; seniority; unobserved heterogeneity;
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