Essays on post-retirement financial planning and pension policy modelling in Australia

This thesis presents long-term projections of the cost of public pensions in Australia, with retirees' behaviours modelled with the developed utility model. The thesis assumes that retirees make financial decisions to maximise their lifetime utitlities, and their consumption and asset allocation react to policy changes. The thesis finds that the future cost of the Age Pension to be about 13 percent higher than estimated by the Australian Treasury in 2010's Intergenerational Report. As future cohorts retire with more savings, they can allocate more money into owner-occupied properties while preparing for retirement and draw down their savings faster, to optimise their Age Pension entitlements.