Old-age benefits and retirement decisions of rural elderly in Brazil

Irineu de Carvalho Filho

Journal of Development Economics, 2008, vol. 86, issue 1, 129-146

Abstract: I estimate the impact of social security benefits on retirement decisions of rural workers by studying changes in the rules governing old-age benefits for rural workers in Brazil. I focus on a reform implemented in 1991, which reduced the minimum eligibility age, increased benefits, and extended the program to non-heads of households. Because those benefits come with no strings attached -- they are not means or retirement tested -- any behavioral response is a pure income effect. The main finding of the paper is that access to old-age benefits is a strong determinant of retirement of rural workers in Brazil: receiving old-age benefits increases the probability of not working by about thirty-eight percentage points and reduces total hours per week by 22½ h.

Date: 2008
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:86:y:2008:i:1:p:129-146

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