Differences in life expectancy between self-employed workers and paid employees when retirement pensioners: evidence from Spanish social security records

Juan Manuel Pérez-Salamero González (), Marta Regúlez-Castillo () and Carlos Vidal-Melia
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Juan Manuel Pérez-Salamero González: Department of Financial Economics and Actuarial Science, University of Valencia.
Marta Regúlez-Castillo: Department of Applied Economics III. University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU).

No 2021-04, Documentos de Trabajo del ICAE from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Instituto Complutense de Análisis Económico

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to examine differences in life expectancy (LE) between selfemployed (SE) and paid employee (PE) workers when they become retirement pensioners, looking at levels of pension income using administrative data from Spanish social security records. We draw on the Continuous Sample of Working Lives (CSWL) to quantify changes in total life expectancy at ages 65 (LE65) and 75 (LE75) among retired men over the longest possible period covered by this data source: 2005–2018. These changes are broken down by pension regime and pension income level for three periods. Contrary to what has been observed in countries such as Italy, Finland and Japan, LE65 in Spain is slightly higher for the self-employed than for the paid employees when retirement pensioners. For 2005-2010, a gap in life expectancy of 0.23 years between SE and PE retirement pensioners is observed. This gap widens to 0.55 years for 2014–2018. A similar trend can be seen if pension income groups are considered. For 2005-2010, the gap in LE65 between pensioners in the lowest and the highest income groups is 1.20 years. This gap widens over time and reaches 1.51 years for 2014–2018. Although these differences are relatively small, they are statistically significant. According to our research the implications for policy on social security are evident: differences in life expectancy by socioeconomic status and pension regime should be taken into account for a variety of issues involving social security schemes, e.g. to establish the age of eligibility for retirement pensions and early access to benefits, to compute the annuity factors used to determine initial retirement benefits, and to value the liabilities taken on for retirement pensioners.

Keywords: Continuous Sample of Working Lives; Life expectancy; Paid employees; Retirement; Self-employed; Spain. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C81 H55 I14 J26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2021-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-eur and nep-lma
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Journal Article: Differences in Life Expectancy Between Self-Employed Workers and Paid Employees when Retirement Pensioners: Evidence from Spanish Social Security Records (2021)
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