Labor Supply Effects of Survivor Insurance Evidence from Restricted Access to Survivor Benefits in the Netherlands

This paper investigates the effects of survivor benefits (SB) on labor supply. Building on rich administrative data on the universe of Dutch residents, we use the 1996 Dutch reform that considerably tightened SB eligibility rules to causally identify the labor supply effect of SB. We use a regression discontinuity approach, leveraging the cohort-based implementation of the reform. We show that, following the tightening of SB eligibility, individual income and labor force participation after spousal death increase significantly (+23% and 16% respectively). We further decompose those effects bet... Mehr ...