We examine the effect of the partner allowance (PA) in the Dutch pension system on the retirement decisions of couples using administrative data. PA was paid to people who receive the public old-age pension with a partner younger than the state pension age (SPA) and with a low own income. PA worked as a financial incentive to retire earlier, especially for the younger partners. As of 1 April 2015, new old-age pensioners are no longer entitled to this allowance. We estimate the effect of this reform on the retirement behaviour of each spouse. To account for the fact that at the same time, another reform essentially put an end to generous early retirement arrangements, we compare singles and couples. We conclude that PA substantially increased female younger partners' probabilities to exit from part-time employment into retirement close to the older partner's SPA. On the other hand, there is no evidence that male younger partners (either full-time or part-time workers) responded to the PA reform. In addition, PA increased male older partners’ probabilities to retire in the years before reaching their SPA.

我们使用行政数据研究了荷兰养老金体系中的伴侣津贴 (PA) 对夫妻退休决定的影响。PA 支付给与配偶低于国家养老金年龄 (SPA) 且自身收入低的人一起领取公共养老金。PA 是一种提前退休的经济激励措施，尤其是对于年轻的合作伙伴。自 2015 年 4 月 1 日起，新领取的养老金领取者不再享有此津贴。我们估计了这项改革对每个配偶退休行为的影响。同时，另一项改革基本上结束了慷慨的提前退休安排，为了说明这一事实，我们比较了单身和夫妻。我们的结论是 PA 显着增加了女性年轻伴侣的 从兼职工作退出到退休年龄接近年长伴侣的 SPA 的可能性。另一方面，没有证据表明男性年轻伴侣（全职或兼职工人）对 PA 改革做出了回应。此外，PA 增加了男性老年伴侣在达到 SPA 前几年退休的可能性。