Retirement Incentives in Belgium: Estimations and Simulations Using SHARE Data

Alain Jousten and Mathieu Lefebvre

No 7387, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The paper studies retirement behavior of wage-earners in Belgium – for the first time using rich survey data to explore retirement incentives as faced by individuals. Specifically, we use SHARE data to estimate a model à la Stock and Wise (1990). Exploring the longitudinal nature of SHARELIFE, we construct measures of financial and non-financial incentive. Our analysis explicitly takes into account the different take-up rates of the various early retirement exit paths across time and ages. The results show that financial incentives play a strong role. Health and education also matter, as does regional variation – though the latter in an unexpected way. A set of policy simulations illustrate the scope and also the limits associated with selective parametric reforms.

Keywords: social security; disability; early retirement; pensions; unemployment; labor force participation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H55 J14 J21 J26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2013-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-cmp, nep-dem, nep-lab and nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published - published in: De Economist, 2013, 161 (3), 253-276

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Related works:
Journal Article: Retirement Incentives in Belgium: Estimations and Simulations Using SHARE Data (2013)
Working Paper: Retirement incentives in Belgium: estimations and simulations using SHARE data (2013)
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