Although active ageing policy and practice vary between countries, we believe that knowledge about the effects of Norwegian companies’ initiatives to delay early retirement is of interest for all countries striving to increase the employment rates of older workers. Since the agreement on a more inclusive working life (IW agreement) was signed in 2001, the Norwegian government and social partners have encouraged companies to develop a more senior-friendly policy and implement special measures to retain older workers.

In this paper, we present both a theoretical and an empirical model in order to identify the effects of disability on wages. In the theoretical model we assume that the wage gap of a disabled worker depends on a permanent and a transitory productivity gap and the model predicts that the wage gap will be lower after gaining some work experience in the new job.

Spurred by the ageing transition, many governments have carried out wide-ranging reforms, changing the state pensions landscape in Europe dramatically since the early 1990s. Most reforms appear to have been driven mainly by a desire to reduce projected levels of future spending on state pensions.

Norwegian administrative data are used to evaluate the impact of a doubling of the threshold in the retirement earnings test. We find almost no impact on the extensive margin, but a positive effect on the intensive margin. This positive effect is uneven over the earnings distribution, and concentrated on workers around the threshold, increasing with exposure to the reform and leading to a decrease in earnings inequality. Individuals who remain active until retirement age respond more to the reform. Conditional on pre-reform earnings, we find little evidence that individual characteristics such as working histories influence the responsiveness to the reform.

The 2007-09 recession was the most severe economic downturn of the post-World War II era. The nation’s output (GDP) fell 8 percent below trend between the fourth quarter of 2007 and mid-2009, and the unemployment rate doubled to over 9 percent. On average, households lost one-quarter of their wealth between the middle of 2007 and early 2009, and a third of those losses were in home equity. The total magnitude of the economic losses can be estimated with some precision from aggregate economic statistics, such as the national accounts and the flow of funds accounts. In the immediate aftermath of the recession, however, we knew much less about the distribution of those losses across the general population. Information from more detailed surveys about changes in the economic circumstance of households is now becoming available.

The Government intends to end the requirement for defined contribution personal pension scheme members to annuitise their pension fund by the age of 75. This report looks at the likely effects and consequences of this policy.

The world of defined contribution (DC) pensions is changing. The introduction of auto -enrolment will result in the number of people saving in DC schemes rising dramatically. As a result of the Government’s workplace pension reforms it is expected that 5 to 8 million people will be newly saving or saving more in all forms of workplace pension scheme. DC provision will be at the forefront of efforts to give people the dignity and security in retirement they expect. To maximise the benefits of auto- enrolment, it is important that members have confidence that they are saving into durable products that can deliver good outcomes.

Denne gangen ser vi nærmere på arbeidstakernes faktiske tilpasninger til det nye pensjonssystemet. Ole Christian Lien presenterer ferske tall fra NAV om uttak av pensjon (AFP), og Tove Midtsundstad legger fram resultater fra en fersk surveyundersøkelse som viser arbeidstakernes holdninger til pensjonsreformen, kunnskaper om tjenestepensjon og AFP, og planer for arbeid og uttak av pensjon etter fylte 62 år.

I påvente av uføremeldinga arrangerer Pensjonsforum et seminar fredag 4. februar. Tema denne gangen er effekter av pensjonsreformen. Axel West Pedersen ved Institutt for Samfunnsforskning (ISF) legger fram hovedpoengene i sin nye rapport - Pensjonsreformen – status og konsekvenser for insentivene til arbeid, og Nils Martin Stølen presenterer noen nye beregninger av reformens virkninger på sysselsetting og offentlige inntekter.

Econ Pöyry er et internasjonalt rådgivningsselskap som arbeider i skjæringspunktet mellom marked, teknologi og politikk.