Skip to main content

Demanding occupations and the retirement age in the Netherlands

We use unique Dutch survey data to analyze the general public’s opinions on what are demanding occupations, to what extent it is justified that someone with a demanding occupation can retire earlier, and on the willingness to contribute to the earlier retirement schemes of such occupations.

19. juni 2014

Panel data models on vignette characters with different jobs are used to account for confounding factors affecting the evaluations of the jobs as well as the reasonable retirement age or willingness to pay. Occupations that are more demanding induce respondents to report lower retirement ages. There is some evidence that respondents whose own job is similar to the occupation they evaluate find this occupation more demanding than respondents who identify themselves with different occupations. For construction workers this matters less than for less demanding occupations, such as teachers. A less demanding occupation translates in a higher reasonable retirement age and a lower willingness to contribute to an early retirement scheme. We find a one standard deviation increase in demanding occupation translates into a 1 year decrease in reasonable retirement age and 30 to 40 percent points increase in the willingness to contribute to the early retirement scheme.

  • file133593