Slow Down Before You Stop: The Effect of the 2010 French Pension Reform on Older Teachers' Sick Leaves.

Summary This paper proposes an evaluation of the pre-retirement consequences of a reform of the Frenchpension system that increased the minimum legal retirement age. Our empirical strategy relies onthe comparison of two groups of cohorts. The control group consists of cohorts not affected by theincrease in the minimum legal retirement age while the treatment group consists of cohorts bornlater. Using a sample of 38,652 high-school teachers, we identify the effect of increasing theminimum retirement age on short sick leaves (i.e., of less than three months) by comparingprobabilities to take at least one sick leave during a schooling year before retirement across thetwo groups. Estimates of panel data models show that teachers affected by the reform have anincreased probability to take short sick leaves before retirement. This is mainly due to teacherswho decide to retire at the minimum legal retirement age, while those who continue to work abovethe minimum retirement age do not increase the frequency of their short sick leaves beforeretirement. This last result is predicted by a theoretical model that analyzes the optimal retirementchoice over the life-cycle, and it is confirmed by using an empirical strategy that distinguishesteachers according to their retirement age.