Retirement Age Across Countries: The Role of Occupations

Sauré, Philip U.; Zoabi, Hosny

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1940452

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Retirement Age Across Countries: The Role of Occupations

45 Pages Posted: 7 Oct 2011

See all articles by Philip U. Sauré

Philip U. Sauré

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz - Gutenberg School of Management and Economics; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Hosny Zoabi

New Economic School (NES)

Date Written: September 7, 2011

Abstract

Cross-country variation in effective retirement age is usually attributed to institutional differences that affect individuals’ incentives to retire. This paper suggests a different approach to explain this variation. Since working individuals in different occupations naturally retire at different ages, the composition of occupations within an economy matters for its average effective retirement age. Using U.S. Census data we infer the average retirement age by occupation, which we then use to predict the retirement age of 38 countries, using the occupational distribution of these countries. Our findings suggest that the differences in occupational composition explain up to 38% of the observed cross-country variation in retirement age.

Keywords: Retirement Age, Occupational Distribution, Cross-Country Analysis

JEL Classification: J14, J24, J26, J82

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Sauré, Philip U. and Zoabi, Hosny, Retirement Age Across Countries: The Role of Occupations (September 7, 2011). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1940452 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1940452