Research

Working Papers

• The Effect of Pension Eligible Age on Retirement and Benefit Claiming: Evidence from Taiwan  (Job Market Paper)  

(with Tzu-Ting Yang)

This study analyzes the impact of increasing the pension eligibility age on benefit claiming and retirement behavior in Taiwan. In 2009, the Taiwanese government raised the pension age by one year: from 60 to 61 for full benefits and from 55 to 56 for early reduced benefits. This policy change variably affected individuals based on their birth dates, particularly impacting those born after January 1st, 1958. Using a regression discontinuity design with administrative data, we compared individuals born at the end of 1957 with those at the start of 1958. Our findings reveal that raising the pension eligibility age led to a delay in benefit claiming and retirement, with a 0.55-year delay in claiming and a 0.38-year postponement in retirement. The employment rate post-61 also increased by 16.6% for the affected cohort. Further analysis showed that lower-income/liquid asset individuals and passive savers are more likely to delay retirement and claiming benefits due to increased eligibility age. Additionally, employees at smaller firms or those with more senior staff exhibited greater delays in claiming and retirement.

• The Effect of Paid Parental Leave Benefits: Regression Kink Design Evidence from Adminstrative Data in Taiwan 

(with Tzu-Ting Yang)

This study investigates the causal effects of paid parental leave benefits on fertility decisions. The parental leave policy in Taiwan provides benefits calculated as 60% of average insured salaries from the six months preceding the leave, with a maximum threshold. Utilizing administrative data, we employ a regression kink design to estimate the impacts of discontinuous changes in the benefit schedule on childbirth. Our findings reveal a 1% increase in the replacement rate raises women’s probability of giving birth and taking leave by 0.69% and 1.62%, respectively. However, the influence on men’s fertility and leave-taking remains negligible.

Work in Progress

• ​Baby Bonus, Fertility, and Domestic Migration 

(with Tzu-Ting Yang)

• ​Children and Gender Gap in Earnings and Wealth: Evidence from Population-based Data in Taiwan 

(with Tzu-Ting Yang and Yu-Ping Hsiao)

• Regional Variation in Health Care Utilization in Taiwan 

(with Hsien-Ming Lien, Shin-Yi Chou and Chia-Lun Liu)

• The Effects of Place on Prescription Hypontic Abuse 

(with Hsien-Ming Lien and Shin-Yi Chou)

• The Effect of Compulsory Military Service on Labor-Market Outcomes

(with Yi-Chin Chang and Hsien-Ming Lien)

• Strategic Wage Adjustment in Response to Pension Reform in Taiwan

(with Yi-Chin Chang, Hsien-Ming Lien, and Tzu-Ting Yang)

Publications

• Estimating the Elasticity of Demand of Cabbage: An Application of Geographical Climate Information (with Sheng-Jang Sheu and Hen-I Lin), Taiwanese Agricultural Economic Review, 27(2), 1-50. 2020 (in Chinese)

• Economic Assessment of Meteorological Information Services for Livestock Farmers: A Case Study in Taiwan (with Hen-I Lin and Je-Liang Liou), Empirical Economics Letters, 18(5), 496-505. 2019.

• Intergenerational income mobility in Taiwan: Evidence from TS2SLS and structural quantile regression (with Kamhon Kan and I-Hsin Li) BE Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 15(1), 257-284. 2015.