Pension Eligibility Research Articles

Work-related stress among sworn and non-sworn law enforcement personnel

Sworn law enforcement personnel in the United States face high rates of work-related stress. Yet, the well-being of more than 300,000 non-sworn personnel, particularly regarding work-related trauma and stress, remains underexplored. This study aims to test the hypothesis that non-sworn personnel experience lower levels of stress, comparing stress and probable post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) between sworn and non-sworn personnel. The study recruited 283 sworn and 85 non-sworn personnel from two large urban law enforcement agencies in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, between May and October 2021, coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic and the civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd. Participants completed an online survey measuring perceived work-related stress (organizational and operational) and PTSD validated by PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) questionnaire. The study considered different intensities of exposure to COVID and civil unrest, demographics, and worker characteristics as covariates in linear regression models, comparing stress outcomes among sworn and non-sworn personnel. The results showed no significant difference in operational and organizational stress levels between groups, except regarding pension eligibility (non-sworn < 5 years, sworn < 10 years). Non-sworn personnel not yet pension-eligible reported lower organizational stress (β = −10.1, CI = −18.84, −1.36). PCL-5 scores averaged 20.2 ± 17.4 for sworn and 23.6 ± 19.1 for non-sworn personnel, indicating no significant difference in probable PTSD (β = 3.24, CI = −4.19, 10.67). Both groups experienced similar stress levels, though non-sworn personnel ineligible for pension benefits showed lower organizational stress. These findings underscore the importance of targeted interventions and enhanced mental health services for all law enforcement personnel, regardless of classification.

Regressivity in public pension systems: The case of Peru

We study the role of income-mortality differentials and pension eligibility conditions on the level of regressivity and progressivity of Peru’s public pension system, using administrative records from 1999 to 2018 to do so. We consider the joint effect of insufficient contributions, by which the poorest contribute to the pension system but ultimately do not qualify for pensions because of insufficient contributions, and differing mortality by socioeconomic status in contributing to regressivity of the system. We find that the impact of insufficient contributions is more important than the impact of higher mortality in making the system regressive.

Retirement Makes You Old? Causal Effect of Retirement on Biological Age

Retirement is a critical life event for older people. Health scholars have scrutinized the health effects of retirement, but its consequences on age-related diseases and mortality are unclear. We extend this body of research by integrating measurements of biological age, representing the physiological decline preceding disease onset. Using data from the UK Biobank and a fuzzy regression discontinuity design, we estimated the effects of retirement on two biomarker-based biological age measures. Results showed that retirement significantly increases biological age for those induced to retire by the State Pension eligibility by 0.871–2.503 years, depending on sex and specific biological age measurement. Given the emerging scientific discussion about direct interventions to biological age to achieve additional improvements in population health, the positive effect of retirement on biological age has important implications for an increase in the State Pension eligibility age and its potential consequences on population health, public health care policy, and older people's labor force participation. Overall, this study provides novel empirical evidence contributing to the question of what social factors make people old.

Informing the recruitment crisis in policing: Evaluating which incentives can entice the best candidates among college students

AbstractResearch SummaryScrutiny over the quality of police work continues to increase, at the same time that a recruitment crisis may hinder policing services. Moreover, this crisis exists despite numerous work incentives for officers, which are potentially competitive salaries, early pensions, and legal protections. Using a sample of 604 undergraduate students—a natural recruiting pool for police agencies—this study explores the predictors of students’ interest in a career in policing. In addition, we conducted a randomized survey experiment to identify the effect of work incentives on students’ willingness to apply to be a police officer upon graduation. Specifically, we manipulated the starting salary, years of service until pension eligibility, and the protection afforded against lawsuits. Finally, we tested whether the effect of these incentives differs across the quality of applicants (i.e., grade point average [GPA], ability to pass existing application criteria, and subjective qualities that comprise honesty, teamwork, and compassion) and their preexisting interest in a career in policing. We found that students are generally uninterested in becoming police officers, particularly when their GPA is high. Though the starting salary was the most impactful of all incentives, some lawsuit protection is key for enticing the best students. In contrast, conditions for pension had only modest if any effects.Policy ImplicationsRecruiting is key to improving the quality of policing, particularly when many potential candidates are overlooking the career. However, research on the causes and consequences of police recruitment strategies is limited. This study implements rigorous research methods to investigate how to increase the pool of high‐quality applicants to police agencies. Findings support sensible and potentially cost‐effective policy decisions in regard to police recruiting, which should focus on increasing the starting salary, and on more effectively communicating the value of other existing benefits of the career that comprise lawsuit protection and attractive pension plans.

Health and retirement: Heterogeneity in the responsiveness to pension incentives

Workers often time retirement around pension eligibility, yielding a strong instrument for retirement timing. By estimating the characteristics of the complier population, we find heterogeneity by individual health status in the responsiveness to pension-related financial incentives to retire. Workers in poor health do not uniformly retire earlier or later, but rather are less responsive overall to pension incentives. Thus, characterizing compliers may yield different conclusions than simple comparisons of means.

The Impact of the Older Person's Grant Expansion on Hypertension Among Older Men in Rural South Africa: Findings From the HAALSI Cohort.

Hypertension is a major modifiable contributor to disease burden in sub-Saharan Africa. We exploited an expansion to age eligibility for men in South Africa's noncontributory public pension to assess the impact of pension eligibility on hypertension in a rural, low-income South African setting. Data were from 1247 men aged ≥60 in the population-representative Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa in 2014/2015. We identified cohorts of men from 0 (controls, aged ≥65 at pension expansion) through 5 years of additional pension eligibility based on their birth year. Using the modified Framingham Heart Study hypertension risk prediction model, and the Wand et al. model modified for the South African population, we estimated the difference in the probabilities of hypertension for men who benefitted from the pension expansion relative to the control. We conducted a negative control analysis among older women, who were not eligible for pension expansion, to assess the robustness of our findings. Older men with 5 additional years of pension eligibility had a 6.9-8.1 percentage point greater probability of hypertension than expected without the pension expansion eligibility. After accounting for birth cohort effects through a negative control analysis involving older women reduced estimates to a 3.0-5.2 percentage point greater probability of hypertension than expected. We observed a mean 0.2 percentage point increase in the probability of hypertension per additional year of pension eligibility, but this trend was not statistically significant. Although the Older Person's Grant is important for improving the financial circumstances of older adults and their families in South Africa, expanded pension eligibility may have a small, negative short-term effect on hypertension among older men in this rural, South African setting.

The Impact of Old Age Pension Eligibility on Alcohol Consumption: Evidence From a Population-Based Study in Rural South Africa.

Alcohol causes more than 3 million deaths a year globally and contributes to over 5% of global disease and injury. Heavy drinking and alcohol use disorders among older adults have increased in the last 10-15 years. For individuals living in low-income countries, where wages are low and unemployment is high, old age pensions may provide a significant increase in household income. In turn, the receipt of supplementary income may increase spending on alcohol. Earlier life factors and socioeconomic status may affect alcohol consumption, making it difficult to directly assess the impact of income on alcohol consumption. This study reduces the potential for endogeneity with other life factors by exploiting an exogenous increase in income from old age pensions to isolate the impact of extra income on alcohol consumption for older adults. We used a regression discontinuity design to assess changes in drinking patterns among rural, low-income adults who were 3 years below and 3 years above South Africa's Old Age Pension Grant eligibility threshold (age 60). We assessed this relationship separately by gender and for employed and unemployed individuals. We observed a significantly increased alcohol use associated with the Old Age Pension Grant eligibility for employed men (β = 4.57, 95% confidence interval: 1.72-12.14). We did not observe this same trend for unemployed men or for women. The analysis in this study indicates that increased income from reaching the pension eligibility age may contribute to an increase in alcohol consumption for employed men. Interventions, such as informational campaigns on the risks of alcohol consumption for older adults or age-appropriate health interventions to help individuals reduce alcohol consumption, targeted around the time of pension eligibility age for employed men may help to reduce alcohol-related harms in low-income, rural sub-Saharan African settings.

THE LANDSCAPE AND OUTLOOK FOR CONTINUED WORK LATER IN LIFE IN THE 2020S

Abstract For the first time in more than three decades, older workers’ labor force participation rates are no longer increasing. Even more remarkable is that this trend contrasts with changes among younger workers, who have experienced increases in labor force participation in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. A narrative that has existed for more than two decades—that older workers have been the exception to reductions in labor force participation generally—may be coming to an end. A question then is, in the 2020s, will older workers who exited the labor force during the pandemic return? This symposium explores the new landscape that older workers face. The first paper addresses work-related trade-offs and the extent to which older workers assess the benefits and costs of continued work later in life. The second paper explores how pension eligibility triggers a new stage of the life course, in which older workers can leverage their newfound financial gains to improve work conditions or, alternatively, to exit the labor force. The third paper explores, specifically, how the Covid pandemic changed the workplace for older workers. The fourth paper rounds out the symposium by exploring the relationship between income and health in recent years in both the United States and in China. The flexibility of the U.S. labor force enables fairly abrupt shifts in workforce dynamics in response to macroeconomic changes and other events. The Covid-19 pandemic was one such shift. This symposium provides insight into the post-pandemic labor market for older workers. This is an Economics of Aging Interest Group Sponsored Symposium.

Retirement and healthcare utilization: Evidence from pension eligibility ages in South Korea

This paper investigates how crossing the normal pension eligibility age affects retirement status and healthcare utilization by using the exogenous rule for the public pension benefit and a dataset for the elderly population from South Korea — one of the high-income Asian countries. To overcome selection bias, I rely on a regression discontinuity design (RDD) to compare the outcomes of those barely above and below eligibility age thresholds. By using aggregate measures of healthcare utilization, I find that retirement increases inpatient care utilization, while it has a negative but statistically insignificant effect on outpatient care utilization. These results are qualitatively consistent with the existing evidence in the developing country documenting that retirement positively impacts inpatient care utilization.

Joint retirement of couples: Evidence from discontinuities in Denmark

We study joint retirement and its underlying determinants. First, we use full-population data from Denmark and a discontinuity design to document joint retirement at the early pension eligibility age. For every 100 individuals who retire when they reach pension eligibility, around 8 of their spouses adjust their behavior to retire at the same time. Next, we investigate mechanisms. We begin by arguing that our estimates are explained primarily by leisure complementarities. We then explore heterogeneity and pathways couples take to retire together. We find that age differences are a fundamental determinant of joint retirement, which is driven by older spouses waiting to retire and claim pension benefits until their younger partners reach pension eligibility as well. We also show that females respond more than males and that secondary earners respond more than primary earners. Finally, we show that a reform increasing eligibility ages induced similar joint retirement spillovers.

How Does the Statutory Retirement Age Affect Older workers’ Employment in Relation to Individual and Work‐Related Factors?

ABSTRACT Policies aimed at increasing employment among older people often focus on the statutory retirement age. Taking into account the characteristics of workers and work-related factors, we examine the impact of reaching the statutory retirement age on continuing employment. In addition to the use of survival trees, we propose a novel method to predict the probability of staying in employment based on an ensemble of survival trees. We focus on Poland as an example of a European country with a particularly low share of older workers in the labor force. Moreover, reform was carried out in Poland in 2017, lowering the previously raised pension eligibility age. Like other EU countries, pension eligibility in Poland starts after reaching the statutory retirement age. Our results suggest that the timing of retirement is determined by the statutory retirement age to a limited extent compared to other factors. In the case of women, a match of education and occupation, the employment sector, and holding a managerial position had a greater impact on continuing employment than reaching retirement age. In the case of men, the type of job contract had the greatest impact on continuing employment. Our findings indicate that the policies and initiatives aimed at extending working life should pay more attention to work-related factors and gender differences in employment.

Retirement Pathways' Effect on Physical and Mental Health: Evidence from Japan.

Few studies have used rigorous causal analysis to examine the difference in health effects between abrupt and gradual transitions from full-time employment to full retirement. Data were obtained from 10,253 individuals aged 50 years and older from the 2005-2019 Longitudinal Survey of Middle-aged and Older Adults conducted in Japan. An instrumental variable approach was used to determine the causal relationship between retirement pathways and health by exploiting the public pension eligibility age as the instrument. Abruptly retired individuals were more likely to have physical limitation and less likely to have depression than those not yet retired. In contrast, those who fully retired through a gradual transition were less likely to have physical limitation and more likely to have depression than those not yet retired. Retirement pathways have different effects on physical and mental health, providing important implication for labor and health policies in aging societies.

Preventing reforming unequally

Population aging has forced policy makers in most developed countries to reform pension systems with the aim of maintaining or re-establishing financial sustainability. This usually involves cost-cutting measures like later pension eligibility ages and lower replacement rates. Such reforms face harsh trade-offs with the objective of providing adequate pensions. Social welfare and inequality have emerged as crucial concerns about recent pension reforms, stressing that the lack of “social sustainability” may undermine financial sustainability. This paper analyzes such trade-offs and may explain why support for pension reform has dwindled in Europe. The paper evaluates reform effects on financial sustainability, social welfare, and intra- and inter-generational equality in a rich unified framework with several dimensions of heterogeneity and various behavioral reactions. Our simulations shed light on the complex distributional effects of pension reform on different cohorts and societal groups. They show where policy tends to reform unequally and why reforms may fail to find voters’ approval.

Does a Longer Work Horizon Affect Offsprings' Labour Market Outcomes?

This paper studies the effect of an increase in the work horizon of middle aged workers on the school-work transition of their offsprings aged 15–29 years. I exploit the variation in the parental work horizon induced by the 2012 Fornero reform in Italy that abruptly changed the age and years of social security contribution requirements for pension eligibility. Utilising a difference-in-difference strategy in a multi-valued treatment setting, the study shows that the reform-induced increase in the work horizon of mothers caused an increase in the probability of their offsprings seeking their first job and a decrease in these offsprings’ probability of being a student. This effect is higher among offsprings who are male, those aged 15–21, those with mothers without a University degree and those in southern Italy. Fathers did not significantly affect the student status or any labour market outcomes of their offsprings. Mechanisms behind these findings include the longer reform-induced work horizon for mothers vs. fathers, and the consequent positive effect on mothers’ lifetime earnings.

Mental health around retirement: evidence of Ashenfelter’s dip

BackgroundMental health issues among retirees have become increasingly concerning because the aging population presents a significant challenge globally, particularly in Western countries. Previous studies on this issue are plagued with bias owing to lacking panel data and estimation strategies. This study investigated the depression levels of European adults around the time of retirement.MethodsWe used data obtained from Waves 1–7 of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) to create panel data covering the 2004–2017 period. Wave 3 (SHARELIFE) was excluded from the sample because it provided mismatched information. Fixed-effects (FE) and fixed-effects instrumental variables (FE-IV) models with multiple imputations were employed to examine the impacts of retirement on mental health before and after retirement, where being over pension age (normal and early) was used as the instrument variable.ResultsOur results indicated that retirement based on aspirational motivations (β = − 0.115, p < 0.001) and positive circumstances (β = − 0.038, p < 0.001) significantly reduced depression, whereas retiring under negative circumstances could deteriorate one’s mental health (β = 0.087, p < 0.001). FE and FE-IV models indicated that overall, retiring reduced retirees’ depression (β = − 0.096, p < 0.001 and β = − 0.261, p < 0.001, respectively). The results of FE-IV models showed that adults planning to retire in the next two years experienced less depression compared with others in the workforce (λ = − 0.313, p < 0.01). These adults must have adjusted their lifestyles in response to their impending retirement, thereby evincing Ashenfelter’s dip. Two years after retirement, when the “honeymoon” phase was over, retirees may have completely adapted to their new lives and the effect of retirement was no longer important.ConclusionsRetirement improves mental health before it happens, but not after. Increasing the pension eligibility age may postpone the beneficial effects of retirement on health. However, policy implications should be tailored according to the unique situations of each country, job sector, and population. Providing flexible schemes regarding retirement timing decisions would be better than a generalized retirement policy.

Delay the Pension Age or Adjust the Pension Benefit? Implications for Labor Supply and Individual Welfare in China

We develop and calibrate a life-cycle model of labor supply and consumption to quantify the implications of alternative pension reforms on labor supply, individual welfare, and government budget for Chinas basic old-age insurance program. We distinguish low-skilled and high-skilled individuals, who differ in their preferences, health and labor income dynamics, and medical expense processes. We use the calibrated model to evaluate three potential pension reforms: (i) increasing the pension eligibility age from 60 to 65, but keeping the current pension benefit formula unchanged; (ii) keeping the pension eligibility age at 60, but proportionally lowering pension benefits so that the pension program’s budget is the same as under Reform (i); and (iii) increasing the pension eligibility age to 65 and simultaneously increasing the pension benefits so that individuals of both skill types attain the same individual welfare levels as in the status quo. We find that relative to the baseline, both Reforms (i) and (ii) can substantially improve the budgets of the pension system, but at the cost of substantial individual welfare loss for both skill types. In contrast, we find that Reform (iii) can modestly improve the budget of the pension system while ensuring that both skill types are as well off as in the status quo. We find that Reforms (i) and (ii) slightly increase, but Reform (iii) slightly decreases, the overall labor supply.

Retirement age and disability status as pathways to later-life cognitive impairment: Evidence from the Norwegian HUNT Study linked with Norwegian population registers.

Research shows that retirement age is associated with later-life cognition but has not sufficiently distinguished between retirement pathways. We examined how retirement age was associated with later-life dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) for people who retired via the disability pathway (received a disability pension prior to old-age pension eligibility) and those who retired via the standard pathway. The study sample comprised 7210 participants from the Norwegian Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT4 70+, 2017-2019) who had worked for at least one year in 1967-2019, worked until age 55+, and retired before HUNT4. Dementia and MCI were clinically assessed in HUNT4 70+ when participants were aged 69-85years. Historical data on participants' retirement age and pathway were retrieved from population registers. We used multinomial regression to assess the dementia/MCI risk for women and men retiring via the disability pathway, or early (<67years), on-time (age 67, old-age pension eligibility) or late (age 68+) via the standard pathway. In our study sample, 9.5% had dementia, 35.3% had MCI, and 28.1% retired via the disability pathway. The disability retirement group had an elevated risk of dementia compared to the on-time standard retirement group (relative risk ratio [RRR]: 1.64, 95% CI 1.14-2.37 for women, 1.70, 95% CI 1.17-2.48 for men). MCI risk was lower among men who retired late versus on-time (RRR, 0.76, 95% CI 0.61-0.95). Disability retirees should be monitored more closely, and preventive policies should be considered to minimize the dementia risk observed among this group of retirees.

The value of pension reforms for late working life: evidence from Sweden

PurposeDriven by the aim to increase the participation of older people in the labour force and to extend people's working lives, the Swedish Parliament passed a bill in 1998 to increase the pension eligibility age from 60 to 61 years and establish a notional defined-contribution (NDC) plan. In this article, the authors investigate the impacts towards the prolongation of working lives expected from such an intervention.Design/methodology/approachThe authors apply a multinomial probabilistic model based on Swedish registry data on the birth cohorts 1937–1938 (n = 102,826) and observe differences in exit behaviour between eligible and non-eligible individuals.FindingsThe authors find that the cohorts eligible to the pension reform exit the labour market at a later age compared to non-eligible cohorts at the 61-years cut-off. The authors also find that the effect persists in the long term. Furthermore, the authors find that both men and women are equally struck by the reform.Originality/valueWhile there exist many descriptive reports and theoretical analyses on the costs and benefits of pension reforms, this study is the first one to empirically analyse the effect of the first European NDC pay-as-you go pension plan on the potential exclusion of old-aged workers.

Effects of Pension Eligibility Expansion on Men’s Cognitive Function: Findings from Rural South Africa

ABSTRACT Two-thirds of people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) live in low- and middle-income countries, and this figure is expected to rise as these populations are rapidly aging. Since evidence demonstrates links between socioeconomic status and slower rates of cognitive decline, protecting older adults’ cognitive function in resource-limited countries that lack the infrastructure to cope with ADRD is crucial to reduce the burden it places on these populations and their health systems. While cash transfers are a promising intervention to promote healthy cognitive aging, factors such as household wealth and level of education often confound the ability to make causal inferences on the impact of cash transfers and cognitive function. This study uses a quasi-experimental design, leveraging an exogenous expansion to the Old Age Pension for men in South Africa, to approximate causal associations with cognitive function. We found evidence that there is a potential benefit of cash transfers at an earlier age for older individuals. As such, transfers such as pensions or other forms of direct basic income transfers may hold promise as potential interventions to promote healthy cognitive aging.

어떤 청년들이 연금 가입에서 배제되는가?: 청년의 노동과 국민연금

어떤 청년들이 연금 가입에서 배제되는가?: 청년의 노동과 국민연금