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 within the pension system among retirees.  As such, these policies appear to be binding on the labor supply decisions of some employees.  These results are relevant for designing policies aimed at extending work-lives or improving the health of pension systems.

Privacy Overview
Kessler Scholars Collaborative

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. You can read more in our Privacy Policy.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

Analytics

We use Google Analytics to collect anonymous information about how visitors interact with this website and the information we provide here, so that we can improve both over the long run. For more on how we use this information please see our privacy policy.