This paper investigates the role of productivity as a determinant of the worker's retirement intentions. Using an overlapping generation framework, we analyze the retirement decision of a cohort of ...workers being ability heterogeneous. The labor market is endogenously segmented between workers having the required ability level to occupy jobs where the productivity is indexed to the technological state via on-the-job training (complex jobs) and the rest of workers, who are employed in positions where productivity is relatively deteriorated in case of technological change due to the absence of on-the-job training (simple jobs). In case of technological change, workers in complex jobs delay their retirement date, whereas workers in simple positions will not modify their retirement decision unless taxes change. Using data from France, we find that after a technological change, older workers who benefit from a skill upgrading training program have a higher intended retirement age.
The aim of this study is to examine the factors that impact on older employees in their plans to continue at work or to retire, and to find out to what extent retirement plans are actually realised. ...The frame of reference for the study is Beehr's model (1986) of the retirement process. It consists of three stages: retirement preferences (thoughts about retirement), retirement intentions, and retirement outcomes. In this study, two stages of Beehr's model have been examined: retirement intentions and realised retirement. Retirement figures from the register data showed that people have retired somewhat later than they planned. Slightly more than half of the older employees retired when they intended, a third retired later, and a small proportion retired earlier than they intended. Intentions to continue working longer were explained by many personal and work-related factors, most of which are consistent with earlier studies on retirement plans, whereas realised retirement was largely explained by work-related factors. The centrality of work, a short working career and financial incentives to continue working were the best predictors of late retirement. With reference to Beehr, we conclude that different factors are emphasised as explanatory variables at different stages of the retirement process.
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether employers' attitudes towards older workers, especially regarding promotions, really affect their retirement intentions, distinguishing ...between men and women.Design methodology approach - First, the author uses the 1992 wave of the Health and Retirement Study to estimate, through a Fields decomposition, the relative contribution of the feeling of an older worker to be discriminated against regarding promotions; and to explain the self-reported probability to work full time after 62, decomposing by gender. Second, using the two first waves of HRS, the author removes any bias due to time-constant unobserved heterogeneity, to test whether the individual feeling of being passed over for promotion may be misreported, owing to a strong preference for leisure. Finally, the author examines the effect of a change in this variable over time on the intentions to exit early.Findings - The Fields decomposition shows that feeling passed over for promotion plays a non-negligible role to predict retirement plans but only for women. In addition, using panel data allows a misreporting bias to be exhibited that may lead to underestimating of the negative effect of discriminatory practices towards older workers on their retirement plans. Lastly, an increase between 1992 and 1994 in the age-discrimination towards older workers encouraged women to leave their job early, while it had no effect on retirement plans of men.Practical implications - Empirical results put forward the idea that retirement intentions may differ across gender, owing to the different nature of the employer-employee relation. While for men, this relation is characterized by delayed-payment arrangements signed ex ante with the employer, as already shown by Adams, it is not true for women. Consequently, the age-based preference of employers for promotion, leading to a lower probability of promotion for older workers, is treated by men as a consequence of ex ante arrangements and does not affect their retirement plans. However, women can attribute such attitudes of their employer to a kind of blatant discrimination, reducing therefore their attachment to their job.Originality value - The paper presents a longitudinal approach towards the determinants of retirement intentions that allows the unobserved heterogeneity constant over time to be removed and to estimate to what extent the feeling of being passed over for promotion may be attributed, for each gender, to some arrangements signed ex ante with the employer.
The aim of this paper is to present Finnish employees' opinions on continuing work until retirement pension and after the age of 63, and to find out if physical workload is related to these opinions. ...Altogether 39% of men and 40% of women had never had thoughts of early retirement, and 59% claimed (both men and women) that they would consider working beyond the age of 63. Own health (20%); financial gain such as salary and better pension (19%); meaningful, interesting and challenging work (15%); flexible working hours or part-time work (13%); lighter work load (13%); good work community (8%); and good work environment (6%) were stated as factors affecting the decision to continue working after the age of 63. Employees whose work involved low physical workload had less thoughts of early retirement and had considered continuing work after the age of 63 more often than those whose work involved high physical loads. Own health in particular was stated as a reason to consider continuing work by employees whose work was physically demanding.
Data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (N = 2,589) and the Australian Household Income and Labour Dynamics survey (N = 1,760) were used to compare the macro-level policy frameworks on ...individual retirement timing expectations for pre-baby boomers (61+ years) and early baby boomers (45 to 60 years). Australian workers reported younger expected age of retirement compared to the U.S. sample. Reporting poor health was more strongly associated with younger expected retirement age in the United States than in Australia. Cohort and gender differences in the United States were found for the effect of private health insurance on younger expected age at retirement. Our results draw attention to how cross-national comparisons can inform us on the effects of policies on retirement expectations among older workers.
Wij onderzochten bij oudere werknemers of er een verband bestaat tussen burnout en werkkenmerken enerzijds en uittredingsintenties anderzijds. De data zijn afkomstig van een onderzoek bij Nederlandse ...oudere werknemers (50+) en hun partners (N=2.892). Het blijkt dat hoge werkdruk, fysieke zwaarte van het werk en te weinig uitdaging samenhangen met gevoelens van burnout. Oudere werknemers die meer uitputting ervaren en die zich meer distantiëren van het werk hebben een sterkere intentie tot uittreden dan werknemers die deze klachten niet ervaren. Burnout en uittredingsintenties hangen wel samen, maar lijken tot op zekere hoogte twee verschillende processen te zijn. Waar burnout vooral binnen de werksituatie wordt bepaald, zijn factoren van buiten het werk – zoals gezamenlijke tijdsbesteding met de partner - belangrijk bij het begrijpen van pensioneringsintenties.
Aims: To examine the associations of mental health functioning with intentions to retire early among ageing municipal employees. Methods: Cross-sectional survey data (n=7,765) from the Helsinki ...Health Study in 2000, 2001, and 2002 were used. Intentions to retire early were sought with a question: "Have you considered retiring before normal retirement age?" The dependent variable was divided into three categories: 1=no intentions to retire early; 2=weak intentions; 3=strong intentions. Mental health functioning was measured by the Short Form 36 (SF-36) mental component summary (MCS). Other variables included age, sex, physical health functioning (SF-36), limiting longstanding illness, socioeconomic status, and spouse's employment status. Multinomial regression analysis was used to examine the association of mental health functioning with intentions to retire early. Results: Employees with the poorest mental health functioning were much more likely to report strong intentions to retire early (OR 6.09, 95% CI 4.97–7.47) than those with the best mental health functioning. Adjustments for physical health, socioeconomic status, and spouse's employment status did not substantially affect this association. Conclusions: The findings highlight the importance of mental health for intentions to retire early. Strategies aimed at keeping people at work for longer should emphasize the importance of mental well-being and the prevention of poor mental health. More evidence is needed on why mental problems among ageing baby-boomer employees are giving rise to increasing social consequences, although the overall prevalence of mental problems has not increased.
We develop a simulation model explaining the accrual of retirement wealth gained from working one year beyond retirement and from this calculate an implicit tax rate on the additional year's work. We ...find that the pre‐July 2007 Australian tax on retirement benefits was biased in favour of ages 59 and less, while the implicit rate was positive on retirement past 59. We also use the results of a national survey of 2,500 households (ASRAM SURVEY) to determine the likely response to the tax changes implemented in July 2007 and find that half those sampled are either very likely or likely to change their expected retirement dates in response to the tax changes.
Croatian population and, consequently, Croatian labour force is rapidly ageing. With ageing comes the change in abilities e.g. decreasing productivity and declining cognitive ability. In the modern ...world, new applications of technologies transform requirements of jobs, thus workers have to adjust to those novelties. The problem is that older workers are ‘digital immigrants’ who started using a Personal Computer (PC) later in their lives, often during employment, so they had to change their approach to work i.e., they had to adjust to different requirements of today’s jobs. Required adjustments accompanied by decreasing abilities may lead to early retirement. The authors have investigated the influence of 1) the need to adjust to the requirements of today’s jobs (approximated by requirements to use a PC) and 2) the ability to adjust to the requirements of today’s jobs (approximated by ratings of PC skills) on early retirement intentions of population aged 50+ employed in the Croatian public sector. A logistic regression model in the context of complex samples was created by the authors, whereby both analysed variables were found to be related to the early retirement intentions. Finally, those who were required to use a PC and thus to adjust to changes were more likely to want to retire early than employees who did not have the same obligation. Those with low PC skills, i.e. employees whose ability to adjust was low, were also more likely to retire early than those who have adjusted better.
Cette thèse propose d’expliquer le faible taux d’emploi enregistré en France après 55 ans par les risques de fragilité économique, professionnelle, sociale et familiale que révèle le passage à la ...retraite. Elle repose sur le postulat de la liberté de choix dans la décision de retraite.En 2005, une étude quantitative sur les intentions de départ à la retraite a été menée auprès de 1004 individus en emploi, âgés de 54 à 59 ans. Les trajectoires personnelles comportant leur part d’incertitude et de changements, 31 entretiens semi-directifs ont été réalisés auprès de membres de l’échantillon initial, cinq ans plus tard, afin de permettre un suivi longitudinal. L’articulation des représentations de la retraite, du parcours professionnel et de la trajectoire familiale vise à cerner les écarts entre les projets et les choix adoptés et à déterminer les facteurs-clés impliqués dans la décision.Cette thèse souligne tout d’abord que la majorité des projets initiaux ne sont pas concrétisés. Le déterminisme du contexte professionnel sur la décision de retraite explique en partie ces réajustements : dégradation des conditions de travail, déclassement en fin de carrière, stigmatisation sont autant d’arguments susceptibles d’inciter les individus à partir à la retraite plus tôt que prévu. Mais les itinéraires familiaux pèsent également sur ces choix : « pivots générationnels » entre des parents âgés et des descendants à soutenir, les jeunes retraités doivent faire face à des charges familiales qui influent sur leur décision. Enfin, cette recherche met en évidence la manière dont les jeunes retraités issus du baby-boom, très attachés à leur liberté individuelle tout au long de leur parcours, défendent la préservation d’espaces personnels (individualisation des pratiques), adoptant ainsi des modèles familiaux et une manière de vivre la retraite inédits.
This thesis seeks to explain the low employment rate in France for people aged 55 years and above in terms of the increasing risk of economic, professional, social and family fragility observed in the transition to retirement. The research is based on the postulate of “free choice” in retirement decisions.In 2005, a quantitative study on the intentions of retirement was conducted among 1,004 employed individuals aged 54-59 years. As personal life courses are marked by change and uncertainties, a longitudinal analysis comprising 31 semi-structured interviews was conducted five years later with participants of the initial sample. The combined study of representations of retirement, end of career and family context allows differences to be identified between plans and the final adopted choices, and the key factors involved in the final decision to be determined.First of all, this thesis demonstrates that most of the initial plans are not realised. The determinism of the professional context on the retirement decision partly explains the observed adjustments: a degradation of working conditions, the assignation of under-qualified tasks at the end of a career, and stigmatisation are all factors that encourage people to retire earlier than expected. But the family environment also influences choices: as "generational pivots" between elderly parents and children to support, young retired people have to face family responsibilities that affect their decisions. Finally, this research highlights how young retirees from the baby boom, for whom individual freedom played a central role in their past life course, adopt new family models and a new way of living (the preservation of “individual spaces” and individualised behaviours) during retirement.
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