TY  - JOUR
AU  - Fitzpatrick, Maria D
TI  - Pension Reform and Return to Work Policies
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 25299
PY  - 2018
Y2  - November 2018
DO  - 10.3386/w25299
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w25299
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w25299.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Maria D. Fitzpatrick
Department of Policy and Management
Cornell University
103 Martha Van Rensselaer Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853
Tel: 607/255-1272
Fax: 607/255-4071
E-Mail: maria.d.fitzpatrick@cornell.edu
M1  - published as Maria D. Fitzpatrick. "Pension Reform and Return-to-Work Policies," in Robert L. Clark and Joseph P. Newhouse, organizers, "Incentives and Limitations of Employment Policies on Retirement Transitions" Cambridge University Press, Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, vol. 18, special issue 4 (2019)

M3  - presented at "Incentives and Limitations of Employment Policies on Retirement Transitions", August 10-11, 2018
AB  - For many people, working after beginning retirement benefit collection is a way to enhance financial security by increasing income.  Existing research has shown that retirees are sensitive to the Social Security earnings test, which restricts the amount of earnings some beneficiaries can receive.  However, little is known about the effects of other types of policies on post-retirement employment.  Instead of restricting earnings, many public pension plans restrict the number of hours beneficiaries can work.  I use return-to-work rules limiting the number of hours of employment in a state’s public pension plan and administrative data on employment and retirement to determine the rules’ effects on retirement decisions and post-retirement labor supply.  I find that the increases in the maximum number of hours of post-retirement employment lead to no change in retirement benefit collection and to increases in part-time work among retirees.  As such, these policies appear to be binding on the labor supply decisions of some employees.  Policymakers should take this into account when designing policies aimed at extending work-lives or improving the health of pension systems.
ER  -