Retirement Timing and Social Stratification : A Comparative Study of Labor Market Exit and Age Norms in Western Europe

The monograph disseminates the very topical issue of retirement and its timing as the key to one of the greatest challenges facing ageing societies. Postponing retirement is now almost universally regarded as indispensable in order to relieve European welfare states from the demography-related financial pressures. This seminal study, derived from a statistical analysis of a large-scale survey data, provides a thorough understanding of the micro- and macro-level determinants of retirement timing in contemporary Western Europe. The book is the first monograph to combine the analysis of the retirement attitudes with the analysis of the retirement behaviour within one research. It tackles the question as to whether early retirement can be explained by "early exit culture", triangulating life course theory with a social stratification approach. The author used a novel and innovative approach to obtain the results. The methodology includes: tobit models of proscriptive age norms; simulations of the impact of class structure on a country's average retirement age; competing risks models of different work-exit modalities; duration selection models of retirement timing.-- Provided by publisher Contents List of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgments Abstract Abbreviations 1. Introduction Theoretical Advances in Retirement Research: Beyond the Push-Versus-Pull Dualism Retirement and Social Stratification Age Norms of Retirement Comparative Analytical Strategy and Case Selection Methodology Structure of the Book 2. Theoretical Approaches to Retirement and Early Exit from Work 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Labour-Supply Theory 2.3 Productivity, Human Capital, and Aging 2.4 The Sociology of Retirement and the Life Course Perspective 2.5 Welfare Regimes and Early Retirement 2.6 Summary 3. Social Variability in Retirement Behaviour: An Analytical Framework 3.1 A Life Course Stratification Approach 3.1.1 Work Orientations 3.1.2 Age Norms and the Life Course 3.1.3 Social Class, Gender and Choice: The Scope of Social Stratification 3.1.4 Linked Lives and Family Effects 3.1.5 Synthesis: Constraints and Preferences in Retirement Behaviour 3.2 Institutions and the Life Course: Establishing the Macro-Micro Linkage 3.2.1 Welfare Regimes Revisited 3.2.2 Macro-Micro Interactions Selection Effects Compositional Effects Cultural Effects 3.3 Methodological Foundations 3.3.1 What is Retirement? How to Measure Retirement Ages Operationalisation of Retirement The Retirement Age Indicators by Eurostat and OECD 3.3.2 Social Class: Schemes and Controversies 4. Too Old to Work, or Too Young to Retire? The Pervasiveness of Age Norms in Western European Socie 4.1 Introduction 4.2 State of Research Excursus: The Class-Attitudes Linkage 4.3 Competing Hypotheses 4.3.1 Instrumental Work Orientations or Age Norms? 4.3.2 Class, Gender, and Individualisation 4.3.3 Age Cultures, Institutions, and Behaviour 4.4 Data and Methods 4.4.1 Data and Sample 4.4.2 Statistical Model 4.4.3 Operationalisation of Micro-Level Variables 4.4.4 Operationalisation of Macro-Level Variables 4.5 Descriptive Findings 4.5.1 First Evidence: Too Young to Retire? Too Old to Work? 4.5.2 Age Cultures Across Europe 4.5.3 Age Norms, Gender, and Social Class 4.6 Determinants of Retirement Age Norms at the Micro Level 4.6.1 Modelling Strategy 4.6.2 Empirical Estimation Results 4.7 Determinants of Age Cultures at the Macro Level 4.7.1 Modelling Strategy 4.7.2 Empirical Estimation Results 4.8 Summary 5. Differential Retirement Behavior in Western Europe: Social Stratification and Cross-National D 5.1 Introduction: Examining Retirement Behavior 5.2 Hypotheses 5.2.1 Individual Variation Gender Social Class Gender and Social Class Household Effects 5.2.2 Comparative Perspectives Institutional and Structural Factors 5.3 Data and Methods 5.3.1 Data 5.3.2 Statistical Model 5.3.3 Operationalisation of Independent Variables 5.4 The Determinants of Retirement Timing in Western Europe 5.4.1 Survival Analysis: Estimation Results 5.4.2 Divergent Pathways to Retirement: A Competing Risks Framework 5.4.3 Class Elasticities in Retirement Timing: Agency or Constraints? 5.4.4 Time-Varying Class Effects 5.5 European Retirement Patterns in Comparison 5.5.1 Country Differences in Retirement Patterns 5.5.2 Macro Determinants of Retirement Ages: Descriptives 5.5.3 Macro Determinants of Retirement Ages: Multivariate Analyses 5.5.4 Idiosyncratic Patterns in Micro-Level Effects 5.6 Summary 6. Retirement Timing and Social Stratification in Spain 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Labour Market and Structural Change 6.3 Institutional Context 6.3.1 General Features of the Spanish Welfare State 6.3.3 Institutional Pathways into Retirement 6.3.4 Unemployment Benefits and Labour Market Flexibilisation 6.4 Hypotheses 6.4.1 Gender 6.4.2 Social Class 6.5 Results 6.5.1 Data and Methods 6.5.2 Descriptive Results 6.5.3 Multivariate Survival Analysis 6.5.4 Competing Risks Models: The Social Selectivity of Pathways into Retirement 6.5.5 Duration Selection Models: Controlling for Inactivity 6.6 Summary 7. Retirement Timing and Social Stratification in Germany 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Labour Market and Structural Change 7.3 Institutional Context 7.3.1 General Features of the German System of Social Welfare 7.3.2 Pensions and Retirement Incentives 7.3.3 Institutional Pathways into Retirement 7.3.4 Raising Pension Ages 7.3.5 Unemployment Benefits and Labour Market Flexibilisation 7.4 Hypotheses 7.4.1 Gender 7.4.2 Social Class 7.4.3 Family Effects 7.5 Results 7.5.1 Data and Methods 7.5.2 Descriptive Results 7.5.3 Multivariate Survival Analysis 7.5.4 Competing Risks: The Social Selectivity of Pathways into Retirement 7.5.5 Duration Selection Models: Controlling for Inactivity 7.6 Summary 8. Conclusions Retirement Age Norms Retirement and Gender Retirement and Social Class Retirement and Cross-Country Diversity Limitations and Future Research Concluding Remarks References Index The book addresses a timely issue that attracts both researchers and policy-makers: the factors explaining early retirement. The study uses cutting-edge methodology to produce fresh empirical evidence that sheds a new light on the processes of leaving work and challenges occasionally the conventional wisdom on the cross-national differences in retirement ages