Expected retirement age and pension benefits in Austria: evidence from survey data

In this paper we present evidence on Austrians’ expectations about their retirement age and the size of their pension benefits. We find that young people expect to retire at an older age compared to the actual age. The answers indicate that this increase in the expected retirement age might be sufficient to counterbalance the forecasted rise in life expectancy over the next decades. Furthermore, the increase is also approximately in line with the assumptions that underlie official forecasts about the development of pension expenditures. People in Austria also expect to receive less pension benefits, i.e. they expect net replacement rates to decrease, although in this case our results are less conclusive. In general, there exists a considerable degree of uncertainty, in particular among younger people. Furthermore, we find that the main structure of the new pension account system does not seem to be well understood. This suggests that the rules of the new system could be better communicated (e.g. via individualized pension account information).