Suchergebnisse

AbstractResearch regarding the effects of automation on labor supply often assesses the labor force as a whole and disregards specific effects on aging workers. In light of rapid technological changes in the labor market, we assess the linkage between the automatability of aging workers and their retirement decisions. Based on the theoretical model of task-based technological changes and drawing data from the Health and Retirement Study and O*NET 2000–2018, we create an automatability index based on workers' primary skills. Using the index as our main explanatory variable in Cox proportional hazards models and logit models, we find that skill-specific automatability increases the retirement likelihood, both in terms of their expected and actual timing of retirement. This work provides empirical evidence that individuals' automatability renders the notion of "working at old age" less viable, despite the financial and health benefits of staying in the labor force for an extended period. Our findings offer important insights on how to better promote productive aging, for instance, by offering retraining programs for older workers to harness their soft skills to reduce automatability in the labor market.

Abstract
As of February 2017, Finns have been able to claim a partial old-age pension early at age 61 independent of their working hours or earnings. Focusing on the take-up of the partial old-age pension in Finland, this article investigates whether early pension claiming is associated with expected longevity. We assume parental longevity to signal expected longevity. We use total register data on those eligible to claim a partial pension at age 61 in 2018 or 2019 and link this data to the information on their parents' birth and death dates. To our knowledge, there exists no previous register-based study that uses parental longevity to explain pension claiming behavior. Since the longevity of the same-sex parent in particular influences subjective life expectancy, the variables of interest were the same-sex parent being alive and the age (at death) of the same-sex parent. The baseline results show a negative connection between the same-sex parent being alive and claiming. The connection disappears after controlling for gender, but the negative connection between the age (at death) of the same-sex parent and the claiming remains significant in a fully adjusted model. Known risk factors for shorter longevity, such as being male, having a lower income and wealth, also increase the likelihood of claiming. The results indicate that people take their expected longevity into account when making pension claiming decisions. This may hold critical implications for actuarial neutrality, the key assumption of the pension system design, and can lead to an unexpected increase in public pension expenditure.

Abstract
Policies incentivizing longer working lives can remain ineffective if employers are not able and willing to employ an aging workforce. Depending on what employers consider appropriate age norms for work and retirement, they may be more willing to recruit and retain older workers. This study investigates how these retirement age norms differ across Europe and how they are related to country- and gender-specific pension policies and employment practices. The study uses data from the European Social Survey round 9 (collected in 2018) for 27 countries. Employers are identified as self-employed with personnel and managers who supervise others. The data include questions about the ages of when someone is too young to retire and when someone is too old to work. These items are combined and used in a set of multilevel interval regression models to analyze: (a) How employers' retirement age norms differ from those of employees and (b) How employers' retirement age norms vary across countries. The results indicate that, overall, employers have higher retirement age norms than employees, but that the difference narrows substantially once controlled for other factors. Employers' retirement age norms are positively related to countries' gender-specific statutory retirement ages and older-worker employment rates. In the case of statutory retirement ages, this association is stronger among employers than among various socioeconomic groups of employees.

Individual freedom of choice is a much heralded and cherished principle in democracies. Milton Friedman and colleagues at his alma mater, the University of Chicago, made this a cornerstone of their belief (Friedman & Friedman, 1990). The freedom of choice is the antidote to excessive government interference and an instrument which enables people to realize their goals and discipline agents and organizations. The call for freedom is getting louder as individualization of every life is becoming more and more visible and trust in institutions is eroding. Numerous sociologists of name and fame (Beck, 2002; Putnam, 2001) have documented this trend and predicted its dire consequences. Policy makers have translated this trend into privatizing tasks and services which were financed or provided on a collective scale. Of course, the question remains: do people really want to take the fate of their lives in their own hands? For simple products and services freedom can be safely entrusted to individuals, but for complex services with long lasting consequences freedom of choice may not be in the interest of citizens at all. This question will probably be at the forefront in debates about many reforms in social security, health care, pensions as governments are shifting risks from collective levels to the level of the individual.

AbstractIncreasing the employment rate of individuals aged 55+ is a key challenge in many OECD countries. While labor market discrimination and policy measures have been put forward as possible explanations, the role of job search remains largely unexplored. Yet, it determines to a large extent the match between supply and demand on the labor market. In this paper, we examine age-related differences in job search behavior. As skills have often become outdated for older workers, but job mobility may enhance their employment, we analyze search behavior for the unemployed as well as the employed adopting multiple parameters: job search intensity, use of the public employment agency, and social networking. The results indicate that jobseekers of different age employ different search methods, and that this relationship should be analyzed within the employment context of the jobseeker.

Abstract
Despite the common worldwide trend of increasing life expectancy, socioeconomic differences and inequalities in mortality risks remain. This study focuses on the differences in mortality risks after the age of 65 due to working conditions during one's working life. The study is based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), a representative longitudinal survey for Germany. Using occupations as a linkage variable, we match job exposure matrices that contain information about typical occupational working conditions from the German Working Conditions Survey. We estimate event analysis models to determine the effects of typical working conditions in occupations on mortality risks after retirement, while controlling for numerous individual characteristics. Working in occupations with strenuous conditions leads to higher mortality risks in later life. The effect is more pronounced for women than for men. Other factors, notably being male, having poor self-assessed health and the prevalence of an officially acknowledged disability, also increase mortality risks. According to our analysis—and in contrast to other studies—income position does not affect mortality risks after working conditions are introduced to the model. We conclude that reducing job strains may be an effective way of increasing life expectancy in later life. Further research should invest in a deeper understanding of the interplay between income and working conditions, consider the age and duration when strenuous working conditions occur and observe changes in working conditions within occupations.

Abstract
Resources are vital for older worker effectiveness and well-being, yet limited attention has been paid to the antecedents of resources. Drawing together the rich cross-disciplinary literature on resources, and through the lens of cumulative disadvantage and resource passageways, we review the individual, organizational, and institutional factors that influence the resources available to people in late working life. The review provides a more nuanced perspective on older workers as agentic actors. We highlight how agency can be constrained via a person's resources, which are shaped by structural influences. Knowledge of structural influences on resources is important for understanding the experiences of older workers and their continued effectiveness in the work domain. We outline avenues for future research on resources and aging at work that incorporates these multi-level influences.

OBJECTIVES: Research on retirees' engagement in informal caregiving, formal volunteering, and grandparenting often views retirement as a permanent exit from the workforce. Retirement processes are, however, increasingly diverse: some retire fully while others remain in paid work after retirement from a career job. A relevant but understudied question is how these different retirement processes relate to changes in engagement in unpaid productive activities. Building on role theory, we hypothesize that full and working retirees face different consequences of retirement and, therefore, differ in engagement in unpaid productive activities. METHOD: We analyze data that were collected in 2015 and 2018 among 4,882 Dutch individuals aged 60-65 and employed at baseline. Around half had fully retired at follow-up and 10% worked after their retirement. At follow-up, more respondents are regularly volunteering (from 17% to 27%) and grandparenting (from 39% to 53%) than at baseline, while caregiving remains rather stable (from 33% to 30%). RESULTS: Conditional change models show that full retirement is associated with an increased likelihood of volunteering and grandparenting, but not caregiving. Engagement in postretirement work is related to an increased likelihood of looking after the grandchildren, but not to volunteering or providing informal care. DISCUSSION: Our findings suggest that volunteering is important for replacing weak ties after full retirement, while grandparenting might be a new, central role in retirement-irrespective of work engagement. Retirees seem to engage in unpaid productive activities for different reasons.

When does fertility in a country become so low or so high that a government needs to intervene? This paper sheds light on this population policy question, based on a worldwide survey among demographers. We examine how professionals' policy preferences regarding fertility levels are affected by their views on the impacts of population growth/decline and by fertility in their country of residence. The median respondent suggests intervention once fertility goes below 1.4 children or above 3.0. Three results stand out: first, demographers who are concerned about the carrying capacity of the earth are more willing to intervene than those who are less concerned. Second, the context of decision-making matters: experts living in high-fertility countries are more set on intervention than those living in low-fertility countries, but their threshold fertility level is also higher. Third, political orientation matters: right-leaning demographers are more set on government intervention than left-leaning demographers.

Abstract
Public policies encourage later retirement, but they often do not account for discrepancies in the capacity for extending working lives. This paper studies trends and inequalities in extending working lives between 1990 and 2019 from gender and education perspectives in seven countries (Australia, Germany, Russia, South Korea, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States). The three-decade-long data provide insights into the societal transition toward extended employment that began in the mid-1990s. Using latent class growth analysis, we identify five universal trajectories representing late-life employment in all countries: Early, Standard and Late Exit patterns, and stable Nonemployment and Late Employment patterns. Regression analyses show that Non-Employment dominated the 1990s, but it significantly declined, giving space to Late Employment as one of the major employment pathways. Gender and educational differences are considerable and stable and constitute important stratification markers of late careers. Progress toward later employment affects all analyzed countries but in different ways, suggesting the simple generalizations of one-country findings can be risky. We discuss the risks of universal progress toward extending employment that can bring unequal results and negative consequences for vulnerable groups. This study also contributes methodologically by exploring the trajectory-oriented perspective on late careers.

AbstractWhile there is vast research on the Chilean pension system, its financial sustainability, and overall effects on the economy, the literature is scanter about gender differences in retirement and its determinants in the context of a high-income developing country with low rates of female labor market participation and less generous welfare provisions. This study seeks to address these gaps. Employing data from the Longitudinal Social Protection Survey (LSPS), we conduct survival analyses to (a) estimate differences in the risk of retirement between men and women, and to (b) investigate how the decision of retirement is influenced by family, work/socioeconomic factors, and pension regimes. Our analyses focused on the age of the first pension receipt. We carry out supplemental analyses on whether pension receipt leads to permanent exit from the labor market. Our results showed that women have a higher risk of receiving their first pension and retire earlier than men. We found that different work experiences prompt women to leave the labor market earlier than men. These results differ from prior research in developed countries that indicated that in countries with low female labor participation rates, women retire later than men.