Impact evaluation of the 1993 French pension reform on retirement age

<p><p><p>This paper offers the first ex post evaluation of the incentive effects of the 1993 French pension reform. We use administrative data in order to assess how individuals have reacted to changes in incentives to delay retirement. We take advantage of the fact that different groups were affected differently by the reform in order to identify precisely the behavioural impact of changing incentives. We find that one additional quarter of necessary contribution led to an average increase of 1.5 months in retirement age, corresponding to a coefficient response of 0.54. Moreover, we show that the reform has also encouraged individuals to claim more disability pensions and to find additional quarters of past contribution.</p></p></p>