Skip to main content

Pension reform: Disentangling the impact on Retirement behavior and Private Savings

In January 2006 a pension reform was implemented in the Netherlands that substantially reduced the pension wealth of workers born in 1950 or later. At the same time a tax facilitated savings plan was introduced that substantially reduced saving costs to all workers.

22. mai 2018

This paper uses linked administrative and survey data over the period 2007-2014 in which we observe pension rights, individual retirement expectations, decisions to participate in savings programs and actual retirement choices of public sector workers born in 1949 and 1950 to document the impact of this pension reform. The results show that when confronted with an unanticipated drop in public pension wealth, the average worker almost fully maintains current and post retirement consumption at the expense of leisure in retirement.