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Labor Market and Program Participation Impacts of Government Downsizing and Policies Aimed at Older Workers

Friday, November 14, 3:30 to 5:00pm, Property: Hyatt Regency Seattle, Floor: 7th Floor, Room: 708 - Sol Duc

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

We study public policies that are targeted at protecting or supporting older individuals. The first paper studies a very topical question: how does downsizing a government agency affect its ability to fulfill its objective? Studying the Social Security Administration, Gordon finds it reduced the agency's ability to enroll eligible individuals. The next paper studies the impact of recent changes in state-level laws that raised the level of legal protection against age discrimination. Barkowski and McLaughlin find the laws improved wages and employment outcomes for older workers. The next two papers study effects of pension programs on labor supply and retirement. Leganza and his coauthors show not only that workers' retirement decisions are affected by incentives implied by the pension system, but so are their earlier-in-life decisions on supplying their labor in the formal sector. Finally, Kim and his coauthors study the reaction of workers to the incentives of overlapping pension systems, finding that individuals' responses are affected only by the incentives of the primary pension system. Overall, this session shows that public policies have important implications for older workers, and that the resources devoted to implementing these policies can influence their effectiveness.

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Secondary Policy Area

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