Reference Points for Retirement Behavior: Evidence from German Pension Discontinuities
研究发现德国退休者集中在法定退休年龄退休，仅靠经济激励无法解释，法定年龄作为参考点才是关键，这对养老金改革有指导意义。
This paper studies the large concentration of retirement behavior around statutory retirement ages, a puzzling stylized fact. To investigate this fact, I estimate bunching responses to 644 pension benefit discontinuities, using administrative data on the universe of German retirees. Financial incentives alone cannot explain retirement patterns, but there is a large direct effect of statutory retirement ages. I argue that the framing of statutory ages as reference points for retirement provides a plausible explanation. Simulations based on a model with reference dependence highlight that shifting statutory ages via pension reforms is an effective policy to influence retirement behavior.