Retirement and Voluntary Work Provision: Evidence from the Australian Age Pension Reform

Rong Zhu

No 14648, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper examines the empirical link between retirement and the supply of volunteer labor, using panel data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. To identify the causal impact, we exploit a major reform of the Australian Age Pension which has significantly changed the retirement incentives of older people. We find positive and significant effects of retirement status on the voluntary work provision of older men and women. Longer time spent in retirement increases the unpaid labor supply of women, while there is no such evidence for men. We further find evidence of intra-household retirement externalities: older people's retirement impacts positively on the volunteer behavior of their family members. Our findings suggest that the Australian Age Pension reform aiming at working life prolongation has led to an unintended shrinkage of the volunteer workforce.

Keywords: retirement status; retirement duration; voluntary work; pension reform (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H55 J22 J26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2021-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age and nep-isf
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2021, 190, 674–690

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Journal Article: Retirement and voluntary work provision: Evidence from the Australian Age Pension reform (2021)
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