Early Retirement, Social Security and Well-being in Germany

Early Retirement, Social Security and Well-being in Germany
Author: Axel Börsch-Supan
Publisher:
Total Pages: 42
Release: 2006
Genre: Early retirement
ISBN:

Germans retire early. On the one hand, early retirement is very costly and amplifies the burden which the German public pension system has to carry due to population aging. On the other hand, however, early retirement is also seen as a much appreciated social achievement which increases the well-being especially of those workers who suffer from work-related health problems. This paper investigates the relation between early retirement and well-being using the GSOEP panel data. The general picture that emerges from our analysis is that early retirement as such seems to be related to subjective well-being, in fact more so than normal retirement. Early retirement most probably is a reaction to a health shock. Individuals are less happy in the year of early retirement than in the years before and after retirement. After retirement, individuals attain their pre-retirement satisfaction levels after a relatively short while. Hence, the early retirement effect on well-being appears to be negative and short-lived rather than positive and long. Whether this is an effect of retirement itself or a psychological adaptation to an underlying shock cannot be identified in our data and remains an open research issue waiting for a more objective measurement of health.

Healthy, Happy and Idle

Healthy, Happy and Idle
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2016
Genre:
ISBN:

After two decades of reforms that have tightened eligibility for early retirement and the generosity of social security payments, the German government has begun to turn back time and re-introduce more generous disability and early retirement benefits. Often, poor health is cited as the main reason why workers cannot work until the regular retirement age. In this chapter, we try to answer a seemingly simple question: what is the proportion of older individuals who could work in the labor market if they wanted to and if they were not limited by poor health? To answer this question, we follow two different empirical approaches with a similar logic: we estimate the link between health and labor force participation in a population whose employment patterns are or were hardly affected by the current (early) retirement incentives. Using these "pure health effects" on labor force participation to extrapolate to a population that is currently strongly affected by legislation informs us how many could not work for health reasons and how many could work. We find substantial capacity to work among the older population. We estimate that two thirds of the population would be capable of working in the labor market until they turn 70 if they wanted to.

Social Security Programs and Retirement Around the World

Social Security Programs and Retirement Around the World
Author: Axel Börsch-Supan
Publisher:
Total Pages: 672
Release: 2020
Genre: Postemployment benefits
ISBN: 9780226674100

"This ninth volume of the International Social Security series, which studies the social security and retirement experiences of 12 developed countries, examines the effects of pension reform on employment at older ages. In the two decades since the project began, a dramatic decline in men's labor force participation has been replaced by sharply rising participation rates. Older women's participation has increased dramatically as well. While better health, more education, and changes in labor supply behavior of married couples may have affected this trend, these factors alone cannot explain the magnitude of the employment increase and its large variation across countries. Concurrently with rising participation rates, countries have undertaken numerous reforms of their social security programs, disability programs, and other public benefit programs for older workers. Using a common template for analysis across the 12 countries so that results are easily compared, the studies in this volume explore how financial incentives to work at older ages have evolved from 1980 to the present as a result of public pension reforms, and how much of the changes in employment over this period can be explained by these changing incentives. Overall, the findings support the hypothesis that social security reforms have strengthened the incentives for work at older ages, and that these enhanced financial incentives contributed to the rise in employment at older ages during this period"--

Health, Happy and Idle

Health, Happy and Idle
Author: Hendrik Jürges
Publisher:
Total Pages: 49
Release: 2016
Genre: Mortality
ISBN:

After two decades of reforms that have tightened eligibility for early retirement and the generosity of social security payments, the German government has begun to turn back time and re-introduce more generous disability and early retirement benefits. Often, poor health is cited as the main reason why workers cannot work until the regular retirement age. In this chapter, we try to answer a seemingly simple question: what is the proportion of older individuals who could work in the labor market if they wanted to and if they were not limited by poor health? To answer this question, we follow two different empirical approaches with a similar logic: we estimate the link between health and labor force participation in a population whose employment patterns are or were hardly affected by the current (early) retirement incentives. Using these "pure health effects" on labor force participation to extrapolate to a population that is currently strongly affected by legislation informs us how many could not work for health reasons and how many could work. We find substantial capacity to work among the older population. We estimate that two thirds of the population would be capable of working in the labor market until they turn 70 if they wanted to.

Age, Work and Social Security

Age, Work and Social Security
Author: Avril Alba
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2016-07-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1349226688

One of the most important changes in industrialised societies is the trend to early retirement. This volume is concerned with early exit from employment, the well-being of the early retired, and the policy issues raised. The topics include trends in the health of the elderly, disability insurance, pension policy, gender disparities, minimum standards in old age, and the harmonisation of pension schemes. The volume is cross-country in its coverage and cross-disciplinary in its approach.

Social Security at the Dawn of the 21st Century

Social Security at the Dawn of the 21st Century
Author: Dalmer D. Hoskins
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
Total Pages: 362
Release:
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 141283452X

Presenting a periodic overview of the most significant developments and trends in the field of social security has become, for the International Social Security Association, a tradition and a firm commitment. Benefiting from the vast quantity of information uniquely available to the ISSA, its triennial review takes stock of the current state of social security world wide and focuses, through expert analyses, on some of the most pressing social security issues. Social Security at the Dawn of the 21st Century, the outcome of the most recent review, is intended to significantly extend the access of an international readership to accurate and up-to-date information and analyses on social security, which has without question developed during the twentieth century into one of the most important publicly financed and administered institutions in modern society. The chapters are grouped into two parts. Part one treats subjects related to policy trends and regional developments, with special emphasis on such important issues as redesigning social security programs, new management practices, and the informal care dilemma. It features major aspects of developments in Asia-Pacific and Latin America. Part two focuses on specific program areas, with special emphasis on problems and reforms in employment policy, pension systems, and public disability schemes. Information is also provided on new approaches to ensuring adequate access to health care and on policies in response to changes in family structures as well as an recent experience with social assistance programs. Dalmer D. Hoskins has held the post of Secretary General of the International Social Security Association (ISSA) since 1990. Before his election to this post, he held positions in the United States Social Security Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services. Donate Dobbernack is currently chief of communications and publications within the International Social Security Association (ISSA). Before assuming responsibilities in this area, she was chief of the technical activities program of the Association, dealing with international enquiries and studies on various aspects of social security and related fields. Christiane Kuptsch is a research officer with the International Social Security Association (ISSA) and the editor of the quarterly publication Trends in Social Security. She is a regular contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica on the issue of developments in social protection.

Social Security Programs and Retirement Around the World

Social Security Programs and Retirement Around the World
Author: David A. Wise
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2017-06-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 022644287X

In recent years, the retirement age for public pensions has increased across many countries, and additional increases are in progress or under discussion in many more. The seventh stage of an ongoing research project studying the relationship between social security programs and labor force participation, Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: The Capacity to Work at Older Ages explores people’s capacity to work beyond the current retirement age. It brings together an international team of scholars from twelve countries—Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States—to analyze this issue. Contributors find that many—but not all—individuals have substantial capacity to work at older ages. However, they also consider how policymakers might divide gains in life expectancy between years of work and retirement, as well as the main impediments to longer work life. They consider factors that influence the demand for older workers, as well as the evolution of health and disability status, which may affect labor supply from the older population.

Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World

Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World
Author: Jonathan Gruber
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 751
Release: 2004-03-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780226310183

Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World represents the second stage of an ongoing research project studying the relationship between social security and labor. In the first volume, Jonathan Gruber and David A. Wise revealed enormous disincentives to continued work at older ages in developed countries. Provisions of many social security programs typically encourage retirement by reducing pay for work, inducing older employees to leave the labor force early and magnifying the financial burden caused by an aging population. At a certain age there is simply no financial benefit to continuing to work. In this volume, the authors turn to a country-by-country analysis of retirement behavior based on micro-data. The result of research compiled by teams in twelve countries, the volume shows an almost uniform correlation between levels of social security incentives and retirement behavior in each country. The estimates also show that the effect is strikingly uniform in countries with very different cultural histories, labor market institutions, and other social characteristics.

Social Security

Social Security
Author: Larry W. DeWitt
Publisher: CQ Press
Total Pages: 584
Release: 2008
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

A Documentary History tells the story of the creation and development of the U.S. Social Security program through primary source documents, from its antecendents and founding in 1935, to the controversial issues of the present. This unique reference presents the complex history of Social Security in an accessible volume that highlights the program's major moments and events.