Modelling Optimal Retirement Decisions in Australia*

Retirement in Australia: A Closer Look at the Financial Incentives

“…Studies concerning Australian retirement behaviour have long focused on financial aspects of retirement decisions (see, among others, Woodland 1987; Freebairn, Porter and Walsh 1989; Atkinson and Creedy 1996, 1997; Atkinson, Creedy and Knox 1996; Bacon 1999; Jefferson 2005). Of particular note here is the work of Atkinson and Creedy (1996, 1997) and Atkinson, Creedy and Knox (1996), who used the Lifetime Income, Taxation Expenditure and Superannuation (LITES) Model to simulate alternative routes through the ‘retirement maze’ and found that the taxation of superannuation and the age pension system provided no incentive to take superannuation benefits as an income stream rather than as a lump sum and that the means testing of the age pension created a substantial incentive to retire early. Also of note is the earlier work of Woodland (1987), who examined the effect of wages and pension entitlements on the probability of working full‐time or part‐time and found that age pension eligibility substantially reduced the probability of remaining in paid employment.…”

Private Pensions in OECD Countries

“…Bateman et al (1994) and Atkinson and Creedy (1996) offer a preliminary analysis. Knox (1991,1992), considers only the equity impacts of superannuation tax concessions to individuals facing different marginal tax rates.…”