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A wide-ranging comparative analysis of the effects of pension reforms on health outcomes among retirees.

Pension reforms enacted in many developed economies since the late 1990s have raised statutory retirement ages and reduced benefit generosity, prompting concerns that working longer, especially in physically demanding jobs, could widen health disparities among retirees. Social Security Programs and Retirement Around the World: Pension Reforms and the Health Distribution of Retirees examines whether these reforms have altered the distribution of health outcomes in nine countries—Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United States. Drawing on harmonized longitudinal data spanning roughly two decades and measuring health along five dimensions—functional, diagnosed, comprehensive, mental, and cognitive—the country studies find a remarkably consistent picture: in every country but the United States, health inequality among retirees has not increased significantly over the period in which benefits fell and retirement ages rose. The United States, in contrast to the other nations, shows rising inequality in functional and comprehensive health, particularly among women. The findings suggest that in most countries, pension reforms have not so far come at the cost of a widening health gap between richer and poorer retirees, although noisy data and the still-short observation window admit the possibility of effects that have yet to fully emerge.

A wide-ranging comparative analysis of the effects of pension reforms on the income distribution among retirees.

Pension reforms enacted in many developed economies since the late 1990s increased labor force participation among older workers. Did they also generate greater inequality in retirement income? Social Security Programs and Retirement Around the World: The Effects of Pension Reforms on the Income Distribution of Retirees examines whether these reforms redistributed social security wealth in ways that disproportionately benefited or harmed retirees at different points in the income distribution. The chapters present country-specific analyses for Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Using microdata and counterfactual simulations, they find a quite varied picture: in six of the ten countries studied, pension reform reduced income inequality among retirees, while in three countries the reforms expanded it. Across countries, benefit-level changes, rather than behavioral responses to altered retirement incentives, account for most of the redistributive impact. In countries that cut benefits uniformly, lower-income retirees suffered more than higher-income retirees due to shorter life expectancies. When new programs supplemented across-the-board cuts with support for lower earners, however, inequality declined.

A global analysis of the effects of social security reforms on the retirement incentives and labor force trends of older workers.

Employment among older men and women has increased dramatically in recent years, reversing a downward trend in the closing decades of the twentieth century. Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World examines how changing retirement incentives have reshaped labor force participation trends among older workers. The chapters feature country-specific analyses for Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They find that while there is significant heterogeneity across countries, the reforms of recent decades have generally reduced the implicit tax on work at older ages. These changes correlate positively with labor force participation. The studies exploit the variation in the timing and extent of reforms of retirement incentives and employ microeconometric methods to investigate whether this correlation reflects a causal relationship. Policy changes appear to have contributed to rising labor force activity, but other factors like the role of women in the labor force, improved health, and changes in private pensions likely also play important roles.