Edward Lazear

Edward Lazear is the economist whose deferred-compensation theory appears in Older workers aren’t retiring. Should they be forced to?. The Planet Money episode uses his model to explain why mandatory retirement once fit a workplace bargain where younger workers were underpaid relative to productivity and older workers were later overpaid.

In the source, Lazear’s model becomes Implicit Contract Retirement Theory. A predictable endpoint can make the bargain work, but the episode also argues that job mobility and pension decline make the old bargain less stable today.

Connections

• Implicit Contract Retirement Theory - source concept built from Lazear’s model.
• Contract Theory / 契约理论 - broader wiki frame for implicit bargains and incentives.
• Mandatory Retirement Policy - endpoint rule that can support the deferred-compensation bargain.
• Retirement Security Tradeoff - reason the older model is harder to restore without pensions.
• Employer-Bargained Benefits - adjacent U.S. benefits architecture around pensions and workplace security.