{"title":"Pensions and Participation: Evidence From World War II Veterans in Australia","authors":"David Rodgers, George Kudrna, Alan Woodland","doi":"10.1111/1475-4932.12876","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper examines the impact of World War II (WWII) service on the labour force participation (LFP) of older Australian men in the second half of the twentieth century. Leveraging substantial variation in service rates across birth cohorts, we estimate the causal effect of military service on retirement behaviour. We find that WWII service led to a pronounced decline in LFP—by more than 20 percentage points—for men aged 60–64. This decline is primarily driven by veterans' earlier eligibility for public retirement benefits, particularly the Service Pension, which was accessible from age 60. Supporting this interpretation, survey data from the 1970s indicate that veterans expected to retire earlier than non-veterans. Furthermore, differences in education, employment history and income do not fully explain the observed gap in retirement expectations, underscoring the role of veteran-specific retirement provisions in shaping labour supply at older ages.</p>","PeriodicalId":47484,"journal":{"name":"Economic Record","volume":"101 334","pages":"323-347"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-4932.12876","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Economic Record","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1475-4932.12876","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This paper examines the impact of World War II (WWII) service on the labour force participation (LFP) of older Australian men in the second half of the twentieth century. Leveraging substantial variation in service rates across birth cohorts, we estimate the causal effect of military service on retirement behaviour. We find that WWII service led to a pronounced decline in LFP—by more than 20 percentage points—for men aged 60–64. This decline is primarily driven by veterans' earlier eligibility for public retirement benefits, particularly the Service Pension, which was accessible from age 60. Supporting this interpretation, survey data from the 1970s indicate that veterans expected to retire earlier than non-veterans. Furthermore, differences in education, employment history and income do not fully explain the observed gap in retirement expectations, underscoring the role of veteran-specific retirement provisions in shaping labour supply at older ages.
期刊介绍：
Published on behalf of the Economic Society of Australia, the Economic Record is intended to act as a vehicle for the communication of advances in knowledge and understanding in economics. It publishes papers in the theoretical, applied and policy areas of economics and provides a forum for research on the Australian economy. It also publishes surveys in economics and book reviews to facilitate the dissemination of knowledge.
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