With an aging population and a tight labour market, stimulating old-age employment is crucial for the sustainability of our welfare system, including the pension system, and economy. Prior reforms have been mostly targeted at workers, yet employment still declines strongly after the age of 60, with few workers remaining employed past the statutory retirement age. Low old-age employment is the result of both workers’ preferences and employers’ barriers and willingness to hire, train and retain older workers. Little is known on the role of the employers. Our project will investigate this role using linked employer-employee administrative data on the universe of Dutch workers and employers and natural experiments, while also leveraging the information in existing worker- and firm-level surveys.

First we will document how much the outcomes of old-age workers differ across employers, and uncover best practices when it comes to old-age employment. Next, we will focus on how national and sectoral policies targeted at employers influence (partial) retirement patterns. Subsequently, we consider the role of HRM and age-friendly work practices. Finally, we will unpack the dual relationship between health and old-age employment across occupations, sectors and types of workers, paying particular attention to demanding jobs (zware beroepen in Dutch).

Our findings aim to inform the debate surrounding old-age employment, identifying the pressing issues and factors on the demand side, and promising policies for employers and policies targeted at employers, that can be used to improve the outcomes of older workers and their employers in the Netherlands and abroad.

This research is funded by Instituut Gak.