Events at CERGE-EI

Presenter: Sona Badalyan (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Title: "Peer Effects in Old-age Employment among Women"

Abstract:
Institutional differences alone cannot fully explain the variation in labor supply at older ages, highlighting the potential role of social norms and behavioral spillovers. This paper studies peer effects in old-age employment among women, asking whether exposure to the labor market behavior of older colleagues influences individual employment decisions later in life. Leveraging rich German social security data, I define peer groups based on detailed occupation and establishment identifiers to capture meaningful workplace interactions. Identification comes from a pension reform that raised the early retirement age for women born after 1951 by at least three years. The key variation arises from coworkers’ exposure to peer women just above or below the reform cutoff. I find that women are significantly more likely to remain employed at older ages when their peers decide to do so. To explore the mechanisms, I examine both standard peer effects channels—such as conformity and information transmission—and introduce a novel mechanism in this context: teamwork complementarities and firm incentives. The results suggest that institutional changes can propagate through workplace social networks, amplifying their effects beyond the directly treated individuals.

Form: Online
Meeting number: 935 1281 5717
Meeting password: 447386