Volume 30, Number 2 (Spring) 1995
Ruhm, Christopher J. 1995. "Secular Changes in the Work and Retirement Patterns of Older Men." Journal of Human Resources 30(2):362-385.
This paper examines trends in the work and retirement patterns of males aged 58 to 63 in 1969 and 1989 respectively. The labor force attachments of this group have fallen for reasons unrelated to changes in individual characteristics or occupational attainment. Especially sharp reductions at age 62 hint at an increasingly important role for the early retirement provisions in Social Security. Attachments to longest jobs have also declined substantially beginning at age 55. Although pension incentives may be significant, the observed correlations between pensions and employment status may also reflect the role of confounding factors such as poorly measured nonpension wealth.
Christopher J. Ruhm is a professor of economics at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The author would like to thank Steve Allen, Robert Clark, Marjorie Honig, Joe Quinn, and seminar participants at North Carolina State University, the University of South Carolina, and the National Bureau of Economic Research Summer Institute for helpful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning August 1995 through August 1998 from Christopher Ruhm, Department of economics, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27412-5001.
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