Social Security and Retirement around the WorldJonathan Gruber, David A. Wise What accounts for the striking decline in labor force participation at increasingly younger ages? Social Security and Retirement around the World examines one explanation: social security programs actually provide incentives for early retirement. This volume houses a set of remarkable papers that present information on the social security systems, and labor force participation patterns, in Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. "This book is highly recommended for the serious student of retirement age trends and social security old-age pension policies of industrial nations in a cross-national context." Martin B. Tracy, Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare “A path-breaking public-policy study. The authors consistently use a new methodology to evaluate the consequences of retirement systems on the behavior of older workers in eleven industrialized countries. In doing so, the book passes a major test of any conference volume the whole greatly exceeds the sum of its parts. This book without question provides the most consistent cross-national analyses of the work disincentives of retirement programs ever produces. Moreover it will serve as the model for all future efforts of this kind.” Journal of Economics |
Contents
| 1 | |
1 Social Security and Retirement in Belgium | 37 |
2 Social Security and Retirement in Canada | 73 |
3 Social Security and Retirement in France | 101 |
4 Social Security and Retirement in Germany | 135 |
5 Social Security and Retirement in Italy | 181 |
6 Social Security and Retirement in Japan | 239 |
7 Social Security and Retirement in the Netherlands | 269 |
8 Social Security and Retirement in Spain | 305 |
9 Social Security Occupational Pensions and Retirement in Sweden | 355 |
10 Pensions and Retirement in the United Kingdom | 403 |
11 Social Security and Retirement in the United States | 437 |
Contributors | 475 |
| 477 | |
| 481 | |
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Social Security and Retirement around the World Jonathan Gruber,David A. Wise No preview available - 1999 |
Common terms and phrases
50 percent Accrual Tax actuarial additional age fifty-five Age Fig age group age sixty age sixty-five age sixty-two average base-case basic pension Belgium cohort computed contributions decline disability insurance disability pension early retirement age earners earnings history East Germany economic effect eligible entitled fifty-nine figure force participation rates fraction fund Germany GSOEP hazard rate household income tax increase individual labor force participation labor market lower male mandatory retirement median ment net wages normal retirement age occupational pension old age pension older persons payroll tax pension benefits pension scheme percentage preretirement private pension private-sector employees Rate SSW Accrual Rate Tax receipt receive reform regime Replacement Accrual replacement rate retirement at age retirement behavior sector self-employed simulation sixty to sixty-four social security benefits social security system social security tax social security wealth Source spouse Survey survivor benefits Table tax/subsidy rate trends unemployed unemployment wage women
Popular passages
Page v - RELATION OF NATIONAL BUREAU DIRECTORS TO PUBLICATIONS REPORTING CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS Since the present volume is a record of conference proceedings, it has been exempted from the rules governing submission of manuscripts to, and critical review by, the Board of Directors of the National Bureau.
Page 1 - The increase is striking in almost every country. In Japan, with the most rapid population aging, the ratio will more than double by 2020 and will almost triple by 2050. These demographic trends have placed enormous pressure on the financial viability of the social-security systems in these countries.
Page 1 - In some countries, the labor force participation rates of 60 to 64 year old men have fallen by 75% over the past three decades. What accounts for the striking decline in labor force participation? One explanation is that social security provisions themselves provide enormous incentive to leave the labor force early, thus by their very structure exacerbating the financial problems that they face.
Page 4 - US decline from 82 percent to 53 percent was modest in comparison to the much more precipitous decline in these European countries. The decline to 57 percent in Sweden was also large, but modest when compared to the fall in other countries. Japan stands out with the smallest decline of all the countries, from about 83 percent to 75 percent.
Page 8 - We then present evidence on how these incentives appear to be reflected in retirement behavior. Two features of social security plans have an important effect on labor force participation incentives. The first is the age at which benefits are first available. This is called the early retirement age. The "normal...
Page 8 - ... normal" retirement age. The extent to which people continue to work after the early retirement age is closely related to the second important feature of plan provisions, the pattern of benefit accrual. Suppose that at a given age a person has acquired entitlement to future benefits upon retirement. The present discounted value of these benefits is the person's Social Security Wealth at that age (SSWJ.