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Leaving Already? The Swedish Unemployment Insurance as a Pathway to Retirement

Ahlqvist, Victor LU and Borén, Erling LU (2017) NEKP01 20171
Department of Economics
Abstract (Swedish)
This paper studies whether Swedish workers use the unemployment insurance (UI) system as a pathway to retirement. We use longitudinal register data consisting of weekly UI benefit payments for the period 1999 to 2015. In Sweden, individuals are eligible for UI benefits for a maximum of 427 days. This creates an artificial benefit threshold at 427 days prior to the official retirement age. We use a novel quasi-experimental approach that exploits the distribution of UI benefits and started UI spells close to retirement. We find that a disproportionate large share of total UI spells start at this threshold, which indicates that individuals seek to maximize benefits before retiring. Our results detect moral hazard and suggest that UI benefits... (More)
This paper studies whether Swedish workers use the unemployment insurance (UI) system as a pathway to retirement. We use longitudinal register data consisting of weekly UI benefit payments for the period 1999 to 2015. In Sweden, individuals are eligible for UI benefits for a maximum of 427 days. This creates an artificial benefit threshold at 427 days prior to the official retirement age. We use a novel quasi-experimental approach that exploits the distribution of UI benefits and started UI spells close to retirement. We find that a disproportionate large share of total UI spells start at this threshold, which indicates that individuals seek to maximize benefits before retiring. Our results detect moral hazard and suggest that UI benefits induce early retirement. Furthermore, the results suggest that individuals use UI benefits in a strategic manner. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Ahlqvist, Victor LU and Borén, Erling LU
supervisor
organization
course
NEKP01 20171
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
language
English
id
8926060
date added to LUP
2017-09-21 07:57:00
date last changed
2017-09-21 07:57:00
@misc{8926060,
  abstract     = {{This paper studies whether Swedish workers use the unemployment insurance (UI) system as a pathway to retirement. We use longitudinal register data consisting of weekly UI benefit payments for the period 1999 to 2015. In Sweden, individuals are eligible for UI benefits for a maximum of 427 days. This creates an artificial benefit threshold at 427 days prior to the official retirement age. We use a novel quasi-experimental approach that exploits the distribution of UI benefits and started UI spells close to retirement. We find that a disproportionate large share of total UI spells start at this threshold, which indicates that individuals seek to maximize benefits before retiring. Our results detect moral hazard and suggest that UI benefits induce early retirement. Furthermore, the results suggest that individuals use UI benefits in a strategic manner.}},
  author       = {{Ahlqvist, Victor and Borén, Erling}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Leaving Already? The Swedish Unemployment Insurance as a Pathway to Retirement}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}