The Effects of Pensions and Retirement Policies on Retirement in Higher Education

Abstract

A structural retirement model is estimated using data for tenured, male faculty employed in the 1970's at 26 high quality private colleges and universities. Simulations of raising and then abolishing the mandatory retirement age suggest very large increases in full time work by faculty members in their late 60's and early 70's. Simulations also suggest that early retirement incentive programs would offset only a small fraction of the increase in work due to changes in mandatory retirement, and that rents created by these programs exceed savings from induced early retirements, with salaries of replacements further adding to costs.