The Role of Pension Systems in Retirement across Development

Using census microdata from 78 countries, we study how pension systems shape labor supply at older ages. While male employment rates are similar in midlife, they diverge sharply later in life: by age 75, 54% of men remain employed in low-income countries compared with 8% in high-income ones, with even larger gaps among those with lower education. Patterns for women are similar. Exploiting variation in retirement ages and pension coverage, we find that a 10-percentage-point increase in coverage reduces post-retirement employment by 2.1 percentage points. Limited pension access keeps many lower educated workers from retiring, driving global disparities in late-life employment.