Taxation of early retirement windows and delaying retirement: The French experience

► A study of the effects of delaying retirement with age-dependent firing costs. ► A taxation of early retirement windows introduced by the French 2003 reform. ► A new effect of delaying retirement that raises separations: the impatience effect. ► The impatience effect may offset the standard effect of delaying retirement. ► A critical value of the tax rate, above which the impatience effect dominates. ► The higher the persistence of shocks, the lower the critical value of the tax rate.