Rising costs of public employee pension plans are a source of fiscal stress in many cities and states and have led to calls for reform. To assess the economic consequences of plan changes it is important to have reliable statistical models of employee retirement behavior. The authors estimate a structural model of teacher retirement using…

We use data from workers in the largest public-sector occupation in the United States -- teaching -- to examine the effect of pension enhancements on employee retention. Specifically, we study a 1999 enhancement to the benefit formula for public school teachers in St. Louis that resulted in an immediate and dramatic increase in their incentives to…

This research examined the influence of delay and anticipated health and enjoyment on the amount of retirement savings sacrificed for early retirement. In addition to testing and supporting predictions that willingness to sacrifice retirement savings would be less with shorter delays to retirement, greater anticipated health, and greater…

The study applies a pension acceptance model to acceptance of an early retirement pension bonus. Probabilities of acceptance range from .18 to .33. It also simulates acceptance behavior without the bonus, with probabilities of acceptance ranging from .11 to .30. (Author/CH)

A life cycle perspective is used in this study to develop and test a model suggesting that events occuring early in the worker's life, and often beyond his control (e.g., choice of parents), influence the control over labor force withdrawal and the retirement incomes of very early retirees. (CT)

Although education level reveals nothing directly about an individual's productivity, there is a positive relation between productivity (ability) and chosen education level. This paper describes a study that shows a positive private and social return to educational screening. Firms' use of contingency contracts can be either efficient or…