Social security and retirement around the world: Lessons from a long-term collaboration

Publication date

2025-01

Authors

Coile, Courtney
Wise, David
Börsch-Supan, Axel
Gruber, Jonathan
Milligan, Kevin
Woodbury, Richard
Baker, Michael
Banks, James
Behaghel, Luc
Ben Salem, Melika

Editors

Advisors

Supervisors

Document Type

Article
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License

cc_by

Abstract

Declining labor force participation of older men throughout the 20th century and recent increases in participation have generated substantial interest in understanding the effect of public pensions on retirement. The National Bureau of Economic Research's International Social Security (ISS) Project, a long-term collaboration among researchers in a dozen developed countries, has explored this and related questions. The project employs a harmonized approach to conduct within-country analyses that are combined for meaningful cross-country comparisons. The key lesson is that the choices of policy makers affect the incentive to work at older ages and these incentives have important effects on retirement behavior.

Keywords

labor force participation, older workers, public pensions, retirement, social security, Finance, Economics and Econometrics, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

Citation

Coile, C, Wise, D, Börsch-Supan, A, Gruber, J, Milligan, K, Woodbury, R, Baker, M, Banks, J, Behaghel, L, Ben Salem, M, Bingley, P, Blanchet, D, Blundell, R, Boldrín, M, Bozio, A, Brugiavini, A, Bucher-Koenen, T, Buia, R E, Caroli, E, Debrand, T, Dellis, A, Desmet, R, De Vos, K, Diamond, P, Emmerson, C, Ferrari, I, Fraikin, A L, Fujii, M, García-Gómez, P, Garcia-Mandicó, S, Goll, N, Gupta, N D, Jiménez-Martín, S, Johansson, P, Johnson, P, Jørgensen, M, Jousten, A, Jürges, H, Kallestrup-Lamb, M, Kalwij, A, Kapteyn, A, Kohnz, S, Laun, L, Lefebvre, M, Mahieu, R, Mastrobuoni, G, Meghir, C, Oishi, A, Oshio, T, Palme, M, Pasini, G, Pedersen, P, Pelé, L P, Peracchi, F, Perelman, S, Pestieau, P, Prost, C, Rabaté, S, Rausch, J, Roger, M, Schirle, T, Schnabel, R, Schuth, M, Shimizutani, S, Smith, S, Stijns, J P, Sturrock, D, Svensson, I, Tetlow, G, Thiel, L, Tô, M, Tréguier, J, Usui, E, Vall-Castelló, J, Walraet, E, Weber, G & Yashiro, N 2025, 'Social security and retirement around the world : Lessons from a long-term collaboration', Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 8-30. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474747223000215