Research

Work in progress

Understanding the duration of widowhood is essential for individuals and effective widow support policies. However, widowhood duration (WD) remains an understudied topic. In this article, we provide a quantitative estimation of the impact of three primary determinants of expected WD at age 60 within a unified framework: (i) the degree of overlap between male and female mortality distributions; (ii) the age gap between spouses; and (iii) the dependence of spousal mortality. Using French life tables from 1962 to 2070 and simulations based on the Gompertz law and a bivariate Gaussian copula, we assess each determinant's relative influence. Our findings show that ignoring spousal mortalities dependence overestimates WD by three years, while disregarding the age gap underestimates it by one year. In France, in 2020, expected WD for females at age 60 is 10.4 years and 5.8 years for males. Despite converging gender life expectancies, our projections suggest that WD will remain high until 2070: 9.2 years for females and 6.2 years for males. Notably, we identify a negative gradient of WD along the standard of living distribution. 

Status: Submitted

Selected work in progress

[5] `Household and Government Insurance to Adverse Life-Events', with S. Rabaté, M. Tô, W. van den Berge and W. van der Wal.

[4] Changing the Marriage Contract along the Way: Anticipatory effects of Survivor Insurance on Divorce & Labour Supply

[3] `Pension Reforms and Inequalities in France' with A. Bozio, M. Tô and S. Rabaté. 

[2] `The long term care penalty' with P. Bakx, J. Geyer and P. Haan.

[1] `Spousal death, survivor benefits and health' with M. Barschkett.

Publications

Peer-reviewed articles in English

[2] Coile, C. & NBER-ISS team. `Social Security and Retirement Around the World: Lessons from a Long-Term Collaboration', accepted at Journal of Pension Economics and Finance.

[1] Rabaté, S. & Tréguier, J. (2024). `Labour supply and survivor insurance in the Netherlands', Labour Economics, 88, p.102527.

Peer-reviewed articles in French

[4] Bonnet, C. & Tréguier, J. (2023). '30 ans d’inégalités de retraite entre les femmes et les hommes en France', Retraite et Société, 91, pp. 153--168.

[3] Tréguier, J. (2021). 'Retirement: Do Women and Men Make the Same Decisions?', Revue économique, 72, pp. 881--928.

[2] Bonnet, C., Bozio, A., Tô, M. & Tréguier, J. (2020). 'Changes in survivors’ pensions: A initial approach to redistributive effects', Retraite et Société,  83, pp. 21--49.

[1] Duc, C., Martin, H. & Tréguier, J. (2016). 'Pension reforms in France since 2010: Impacts on inter- and intra-generational inequalities', Économie et prévision, 213, pp.85--120.

Book chapter and report

[2] Bozio, A., Rabaté, S., Tô M. & Tréguier, J. (2023). `Financial Incentives and Labor Force Participation of Older Workers: Evidence from France', in A. Borsch-Supan and C. Coile, Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: The Effects of Reforms on Retirement Behavior, University of Chicago Press.

[1] Bonnet, C., Bozio, A. & Tréguier, J. (2019). 'Vers un système de retraite universel en points : quelles réformes pour les pensions de réversion', Rapport IPP, 24.

Policy contributions

[4] Tréguier, J. (2018). '13% des entreprises proposent au moins un dispositif de retraite supplémentaire à leurs salariés.' Études et Résultats, 1086.

[3] Duc, C., Solard, G. & Tréguier, J. (2017). 'L'âge de départ à la retraite.' Les différences de retraite entre secteurs public et privé : résultats de simulation. Les Dossiers de la DREES, 16, pp.19-44.

[2] Duc, C., Martin, H. & Tréguier, J. (2016). 'Effet des réformes des retraites sur les paramètres de calcul de la pension tous régimes cumulée sur le cycle de vie.' Les réformes des retraites de 2010 à 2015 : Une analyse détaillée de l'impact pour les affiliés et pour les régimes. Les Dossiers de la DREES, 9, pp.119-165.

[1] Senghor, H. & Tréguier, J. (2016). 'De fortes disparités entre les pensions de retraite des non-salariés.' Études et Résultats, 987.

Dissertation

Pension systems, couples and gender inequalities in retirement 

This thesis seeks to contribute to our understanding of gender inequalities in retirement. Because of the gendered division of social roles within couples, women have less advantageous careers and hence unequal pension rights. Drawing from an empirical approach and the analysis of administrative data, this thesis investigates gender inequalities in retirement beyond the gender pension gap and assesses the role of conjugal pension rights (survivor benefits) in these inequalities. The first introductory section describes the French situation with regard to survivor benefits. The second part focuses on retirement duration as a component of gender inequalities. Chapter 2 proposes a measure of retirement duration as a widow(er). Chapter 3 analyzes the differences in retirement decisions between women and men. Retirement duration is very heterogeneous among retirees. Low-income widows spend more years in widowhood. Moreover, women and men do not make the same retirement decisions because men are more sensitive to financial incentives. Finally, the third part of this thesis evaluates two reforms of conjugal pension rights. Chapter 4 focuses on a French reform aiming to maintain survivors' monetary standard of living following their spouse's death. Chapter 5 looks into a Dutch reform in order to investigate the consequences of the elimination of survivor benefits schemes on working-age widows' labor supply. Survivor benefits do not currently maintain survivors' standard of living for low-income widows, while they overcompensate it for the others. Eliminating this scheme would increase the working-age widows' labor supply but would also increase the take-up of other social benefits.

Keywords: Pension systems, Gender pension gap, Survivor benefits, Widowhood, Labor supply, Policy evaluation. 

Manuscript: [theses.fr]

Media coverage: [Sciences Humaines]