Are Japanese Men of Pensionable Age Underemployed or Overemployed?

         
Author Name USUI Emiko (Hitotsubashi University) / SHIMIZUTANI Satoshi (Consulting Fellow, RIETI) / OSHIO Takashi (Hitotsubashi University)
Creation Date/NO. August 2015 15-E-099
Research Project Toward a Comprehensive Resolution of the Social Security Problem: A new economics of aging
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Abstract

We investigate how Japanese men aged 60-74 adjust their workforce attachment after beginning to receive a public pension. Men who were employees at age 54 gradually move to part-time work or retire after beginning to receive pension benefits; those who continue working are more likely to be underemployed. Men self-employed at age 54, however, neither retire nor reduce their working hours even after beginning to receive pension benefits; these men are more likely to be overemployed. In contrast, U.S. men retire or move to part-time when they first claim Social Security; those who continue working as employees after Social Security starts are unlikely to be either over- or underemployed. Therefore, unlike U.S. men, Japanese men are not choosing the optimal pensionable age and labor hours to maximize their intertemporal utility.

Published: Emiko Usui, Satoshi Shimizutani, and Takashi Oshio, 2016. "Are Japanese Men of Pensionable Age Underemployed or Overemployed?" The Japanese Economic Review, Vol. 67(2), pp. 150-168
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jere.12094/abstract