This paper explores the links between unemployment, retirement and their associated public insurance programs. The analysis combines the development of a life-cycle model of search and retirement with a detailed exploration of the empirical regularities using a Spanish administrative data-set...

In this paper we analyze the sensitivity of the labour market decisions of workers close to retirement with respect to the incentives created by public regulations. We improve upon the extensive prior literature on the effect of pension incentives on retirement in two ways. First, by modeling...

Recent pension reforms in Spain have been guided by two opposite goals, achieving financial stability and improving redistributive aspirations. In particular, reforms implemented in 1997/2002 entailed a mixture of both through (i) changes in the pension formula, (ii) the extension in the...

Unemployment rates in developed countries recently reached levels not seen in a generation, and workers of all ages are facing increasing probabilities of losing their jobs and considerable losses in accumulated assets. These events have increased the reliance that most (older) workers have on...

Over the last 50 years, some important reforms in European countries were aimed at improving the system of vocational studies. By contrast, the Spanish educational law (LOGSE) from 1990 moved in the opposite direction. While the LOGSE increased the number of compulsory schooling years from 8 to...

In a world in which the welfare state is under pressure, understanding the dynamic effects of money transfers from parents to adult children and their relationship with informal care can be relevant for policy purposes. We use the first two waves of the Survey of Health and Retirement in Europe...

In this paper, we explore the links between pension reform, early retirement, and the use of unemployment as an alternative pathway to retirement. We use a dynamic rational expectations model to analyze the search and retirement behaviour of employed and unemployed workers aged 50 or over. The...

The minimum pension program is one of the key welfare programs in many developing and developed countries and a key influence in retirement of low income workers or workers with intermittent working careers. The main purpose of minimum benefits programs is to guarantee a minimum standard of...

This paper analyses the effect of unmet formal care needs on informal caregiving hours in Spain using the two waves of the Informal Support Survey (1994, 2004). Testing for double sample selection from formal care receipt and the emergence of unmet needs provides evidence that the omission of...

The discussion about the need for Social Security reforms has recently resurfaced, and is expected to continue to be part of the political agenda in the near future. Our paper is a step in the direction of providing a framework for policy analysis that accounts for employment uncertainty,...