Early Retirement in the Government Sector in Egypt: Preferences, Determinants, and Policy Implications

Abstract

This study looks at factors affecting the decision of early retirement for Egyptian government sector employees. The empirical analysis is based on 2005 nationally representative sample of government sector workers. Among the findings of this study are: women are more likely to retire earlier than men; good health status is associated with longer stay on the job; the level of education is not a determining factor for women, but it is for men; men plan to work after their early retirement; the presence of the working wife has a positive effect on her husband to retire early, yet a working husband discourages his wife from retiring early. Policy implications discussed timing of the announcement of the plans; the potential outcome of excessive payouts, as well as the need for the government to provide early retirees with necessary skills and training to plan their after retirement years.JEL Codes: J18, J26, J33, C20, H55

Thirty Years of Urban Bias: An Estimation of the Rising Disparities in Female Rural and Female Urban Unemployment and Income in Egypt

“…Yount and Agree’s (2005) study compares older male/female disparities in disabilities in Egypt and Tunisia, focusing on disabilities from a health perspective rather than from an income perspective. El Hamidi (2010) discusses disparities from a narrow perspective by focusing on male/female differences in the decision for early retirement in Egypt’s governmental sector. Many other studies observe differences in employment in Egypt between males and females, rather than between urban and rural females.…”

The Patterns of Early Retirement among Jordanian Men

“…There are myriad financial, occupational, institutional, personal and health factors determining early retirement (Blundell et al 2002). Macroeconomic cycles and circumstances also intervene in shaping retirement decisions, particularly on the push side (El-Hamidi 2007;Glomm et al 2009). Employment policies that come with macroeconomic restructuring and privatization are also reported to induce early exit from the labor market (El-Hamidi 2007).…”

“…Therefore, there is a growing interest in early retirement behavior and patterns in developed economies (Oorschot and Jensen 2009). However, existing studies on developing countries are limited (Glomm et al 2009;El-Hamidi 2007).…”

A Mathematical Model for Social Security Systems with Dynamical Systems

“…One solution that has been proposed in several scholarly publications includes the increase of the retirement age as well as pension benefits for late retirement. However, early retirement has an advantage over lately retirement in the long term for the optimization of some institutions, since can be a "soft" way to reduce or to renew the workforce [4].…”