Research

Under review

• Increasing the Effective Retirement Age: Key Factors and Interaction Effects,
  with Tilbe Atav and Egbert Jongen,
  R&R (conditionally accepted) at the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy

  • Abstract
    We study the effects of the recent increase in the statutory retirement age (SRA) in the Netherlands, using RDD and rich administrative data on the universe of the Dutch population. We find large interaction effects with a preceding early retirement reform. The employment effect of the SRA reform is much larger for cohorts receiving less generous early retirement benefits. Indeed, the level of employment before the SRA, together with the retirement hazard at the SRA, is key to understanding the effects of retirement age reforms. Our results further point to a big role for automatic job termination in the Netherlands.
  • Submitted version

Working papers

• Labor Supply Effects of Survivor Insurance: Evidence From a Benefit Cut in the Netherlands,
  with Julie Treguier

  • Abstract
    This paper investigates the effects of survivors’ benefits (SB) on labor supply responses. We use rich administrative data on the universe of Dutch residents, and exploit the 1996 Dutch reform that considerably tightened eligibility rules to causally identify the labor supply effect of SB.We use a regression discontinuity approach, using the cohort-based implementation of the reform. We show that, following the tightening of SB eligibility, individual income and labor force participation after spousal death increase significantly (+23% and 16% respectively). We further decompose those effects and show that the widows who entered the labor market due to the reform mainly did so in the care sector, and that already working widows increased their number of working hours by 8%. We also find evidence of active substitution of widows toward disability insurance as a result of the reform. Finally, our heterogeneity results suggest that the magnitude of the response to the reform depends on widows’ ability to self-insure against the risk of spousal death.
  • Link to the working paper

• Inequality and Redistribution in the Netherlands,
  with Arjan Bruil, Celine van Essen, Wouter Leenders, Arjan Lejour and Jan Mohlmann

  • Abstract
    This paper combines detailed administrative records on the universe of the Dutch population with national account aggregates to provide a thorough description of income inequality before and after taxation and income and in-kind transfers in the Netherlands, for the year 2016. When accounting for domestic and foreign retained earnings, income inequality before transfers stands out, as the last percentile of the income distribution earns 12% of the national income and the last decile 35%. The tax and transfer system largely reduces income inequality: the top 10%’s income share falls to 28%. Inequality reduction is largely driven by benefits, that are targeted at the bottom of the distribution, and much less so by the tax system, which is rather flat overall and even largely regressive at the very top of the income distribution.
  • Link to the working paper

Early stage research

• Differential Mortality and Redistribution in the French Pension System,
  with Aurel Mélard and Maxime Tô

• The Social Determinants of Retirement,
  with Arthur Seilbold