abolishing the right of older unemployed persons to waive job search requirements when accessing unemployment benefits.<sup>115116</sup>

**Relaxing partial retirement rules is a commonly proposed reform to retain workers, but when designing and implementing such policies, it is also important to consider potential negative impacts.** Studies show that flexible working arrangements giving workers choice and control are linked to better health and wellbeing.<sup>117</sup> When surveyed, workers report favoring arrangements that would allow them to adjust the timing and speed of labor market exit according to their preferences.<sup>118</sup> However, partial retirement options in OECD countries do not appear to increase total working hours, largely because they also afford the opportunity to retire earlier than planned.<sup>119</sup> There is also some evidence that partial retirement regulations can have a negative effect on hiring older workers or be used as an alternative pathway for retrenchment.<sup>120</sup> Partial retirement may be incompatible with job and task bundling, especially for high-skill jobs, and may raise the cost of mature workers, which in turn reduces incentives for hiring.<sup>121</sup>

**Pension reforms carry high political costs, pointing to the importance of getting the design right from the outset** . In Europe, several countries have reversed earlier reforms by postponing, limiting, or outright reversing existing or planned increases in early or normal retirement ages.<sup>122</sup> More generally, the experience of both advanced and developing economies shows that design flaws in social protection systems can take many years to untangle and may carry very high fiscal _and_ political costs. Countries seeking to expand social protection systems therefore should incorporate lessons learned to ensure sustainability from the outset and avoid painful reforms later.

**Incentives to work increase as people receive information on future pension income.** Evidence from the United States shows that the framing of public messages regarding pensions matters for when benefits are claimed. Low-cost interventions (informational brochures, invitation to a short webtutorial) informing older workers about expected pension benefits increased labor force participation one year later by 4 percentage points relative to the control group.<sup>123</sup> Pension reforms have routinely been accompanied by financial education information campaigns in the OECD.<sup>124</sup> No equivalent research is yet available for L/MICs, but there is evidence that information campaigns geared towards changing jobs and career decisions, for example financial education or career guidance, can impact individual and family choices.<sup>125</sup>

# **Labor regulations can also allow for greater flexibility in work arrangements to accommodate**

**varying and changing needs among mature workers** . For example, allowing for more part-time work, temporary work, or fixed-term contracts, can in fact serve mature workers looking to adapt their

> 115 Lorenz et al. 2020. 116 Staubli and Zweimuller 2013, Ardito 2021.

> 117 Graham 2014.

> 118 OECD 2017, Henkens et al. 2021, Munnell and Walters 2019.

119 OECD 2017. 120 Busch et al. 2021.

121 Lorenz et al. 2020, Munnell and Walters 2019. 122 Fouejieu et al. 2021. 123 Liebman and Luttmer 2015. 124 OECD 2008.

> 125 E.g. Jensen 2010, 2012, Alzúa et al. 2021, OECD 2021. Information on trade-specific earnings, for example, can have substantial effects on women’s choices to enter comparatively high-earning trades traditionally reserved for men (Gassier et al. 2022).

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