This thesis consists of two chapters. In the first chapter, we are primarily interested in the effect of expectations on psychological well-being of Americans over age 50 and their spouses. In order to circumvent mood effects on both independent and dependent variables, we devise an exogenous proxy for life expectancy of parents. Using the life table survival probabilities, we examine the effect of expectations on psychological well-being and conclude whether psychological well-being is a forward- looking phenomenon in this context.

This paper explores how extended unemployment insurance (UI) benefits targeted to older workers affect early retirement and social welfare. The trade-off of optimal UI between consumption smoothing and moral hazard requires accounting for the entire early retirement system, which often includes extended UI and relaxed access to disability insurance (DI).

The growth of private pensions and their expanding role in retirement income systems calls for a better understanding and management of the risks that they are exposed to. Investment risk features most prominently amongst them, as evidenced by the average decline of 20 percent in OECD private pension assets between January and October 2008.

This paper investigates the impact of financial incentives on early retirement behaviour for high and low wage earners. Using a stylized life-cycle model, we derive hypotheses on the behaviour of the two types. We use administrative data and employ two identification strategies to test the predictions.

Private pensions play an important role in the provision of income in retirement in the UK, although their role has evolved over time. While defined benefit (DB) pensions were prevalent in earlier decades, the importance of defined contribution pensions has been growing and will continue to increase in future years, especially for later cohorts. In particular, the introduction of auto-enrolment from 2012 is expected to increase pension coverage and the amount of pension wealth individuals accumulate before retirement, much of which is likely to be in DC schemes.

This report, funded by the National Association of Pension Funds and the Economic and Social Research Council, examines a range of quantitative evidence to shed light on how current older cohorts of defined contribution (DC) pension fund holders are approaching and dealing with retirement and annuitisation.

This paper provides new insights into the effect of the widespread transition from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) pension plans on employee mobility.

The principal purpose of this article is to analyse the trade-off between the (un)certainty in contributions on the one hand and benefits on the other that is embedded in different pension arrangements.

The main aim of the report is to describe the extent and nature of pension provision among private sector employers in Britain in 2011. Comparisons are also made with key findings from the 2009 survey and, in some cases, the 2007 survey.

While a positive feature of the post-war period, increasing longevity brings new challenges, not least with respect to provision for old age. In particular, it impacts on the ratio of working to non-working life. Beyond public policy concerns over the long-term fiscal sustainability of current retirement norms (State Pension age (SPA) and earlier), recent years have witnessed interest from some employers, conscious of skills shortages and attracted to flexible working arrangements, as well as calls from the older age organised interest groups for enhanced access to paid employment in later life.

This paper offers recommendations for pension fund regulation at a European level. The importance of adequate old age provisioning and regulation is self-evident in the current era. The leitmotiv is the upcoming demographic upheaval. Forward looking, the ageing process will challenge the financing of pension benefits, reaching a climax twenty years from now when ‘babyboom’ generations will have retired.