The Effect of Increases in the Pension Eligibility Age on the Labor Supply of Older Men in South Korea

Abstract

According to the reform in 1998 of the National Pension in South Korea, the pension eligibility age would increase, beginning in 2013, by one year every 5 years from the previous 60 until reaching 65. The increase in the pension eligibility age will lead to a net reduction in pension benefits, which is expected to result in a net income effect and increase the participation of the elderly in the labor market. The impact of pay incentives on people’s labor market behavior is information that is integral to the design of benefits. Therefore, in this study, we analyzed the effect of the increase in the pension eligibility age in South Korea on the labor market participation of the elderly, using a monthly Economically Active Population Survey, which is representative and provides sufficient number of observations. Specifically, we analyzed whether there is a difference in the labor market participation rate between the birth cohort 1945-52 with the pension eligibility age of 60 and the birth cohort of 1953-55 with the pension eligibility age of 61. Labor market participation was defined as ‘whether they worked more than 20 hours per week’, ‘more than 30 hours per week’, and ‘working more than 40 hours per week’. For this, we analyzed whether the trend of the labor market participation rate according to the cohort resulted in the discontinuity due to the difference in pension eligibility age after controlling for personal characteristics and labor market variables. However, there was no consistent evidence that the increase in the pensionable age from 60 to 61 had an impact on the labor market participation rate of the elderly.