Labour market exit in the health care sector. First results from administrative data

The second-largest pension fund in the Netherlands, the health care sector fund PFZW (former PGGM), placed the administrative records of its participants for 1999 to 2007 at the disposal of Statistics Netherlands. The data contain precise information on pension and early retirement rights and can be merged to other administrative datasets. The data will help to understand labour market exit, and will, for example, allow for precise measurement of the impact of financial incentives. First empirical results show that labour market behaviour in the health care sector is in line with previous results for the Netherlands. In an actuarially unfair system many employees retire as soon as they can. For the early years there is evidence of substitution between early retirement and disability insurance.