Do deferred benefit cuts for current employees increase separation?

Laura D. Quinby and Gal Wettstein

Labour Economics, 2021, vol. 73, issue C

Abstract: This study examines whether deferred benefit cuts increase worker separation. The analysis utilizes a 2005 reform to the Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island (ERSRI) that reduced benefits for ERSRI members who had not vested by 2005, and did not affect high-tenure ERSRI members and municipal government employees. A triple-differences research design yields an elasticity of employer-specific labor supply with respect to deferred benefits of 0.28. Although state employees were more sensitive to benefit cuts than teachers, low elasticities for both groups suggest that the labor market for public employees is not highly competitive.

Keywords: Pensions; Retiree health insurance; Turnover; Public workers; Teachers; State and local (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537121001160
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:labeco:v:73:y:2021:i:c:s0927537121001160

DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2021.102081

Access Statistics for this article

Labour Economics is currently edited by A. Ichino

More articles in Labour Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().