Bleiben oder Gehen? Determinanten der Erwerbstätigkeit im Alter

Bleiben oder gehen? Individuelle und institutionelle Determinanten der Erwerbstätigkeit im Alter aus der Sicht von Arbeitnehmern und Arbeitgebern

(To stay or to go? Individual and institutional determinants of employment in old age from the perspective of employees and employers)

2024-2027

Silke Übelmesser, Raphael Kroes together with Sarah NeckerExternal link (Prof. Dr. Sarah Necker, ifo Institute and Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen Nuremberg) and Anne Steuernagel (ifo Institute).

The project analyses from the perspective of employers and employees which factors influence whether employees close to retirement continue to work or retire (early). We consider monetary and non-monetary incentives as well as individual circumstances. The comparison of the employer and employee sides provides important insights into how the effective retirement age can be increased.

The ageing of society, and in particular the imminent retirement of the baby boomer generation, poses a major challenge. In addition to the increasing labour shortage, this development has a major impact on the financial stability of the pay-as-you-go statutory pension scheme. It is therefore important to identify short to medium-term options for action. A key factor is the age at which employees are no longer available to the labour market. Many employees leave the labour market before reaching the statutory retirement age by taking advantage of partial retirement, severance schemes or the deduction-free pension for very long-term insured persons.

Later retirement, especially for baby boomers, could lead to some short-term relief for the statutory pension scheme. This proposal centres on the question of how the effective retirement age can be increased. We look at this question from the employee and employer perspective. The existing literature shows that workplace characteristics, institutional framework conditions and individual factors are important. With the help of interviews and surveys with experiments among (near-retirement) employees and employers, we will investigate which factors are central to staying in the labour force longer, taking into account trade-offs on the employee and employer side. In addition, willingness to pay for key job characteristics will be determined and how this is influenced by the institutional framework (e.g. additional pension points). By considering the employer and employee side, factors can be determined that are desired by employees and appear possible from the employer's perspective. Focusing on these factors is a promising strategy to counteract the demographically induced decline in the short and medium term.

See also hereExternal link.