Elderly labor supplyWork or play?

Elderly labor supply

Work or play?

Haider

Steven

Haider, Steven

Author

Loughran

David

Loughran, David

Author

text

working paper

Chestnut Hill, Mass. Center for Retirement Research at Boston College20012001monographic

Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Center for Retirement Research at Boston College

2001

monographic

Englisheng

English

eng

electronicapplication/pdfborn digital

electronic

application/pdf

born digital

Approximately 15 percent of individuals over the age of 65 are employed. Due to the apparent reversal in the trend toward early retirement and the aging of the U.S. population, these individuals are becoming an increasingly important part of the labor force. However, very little research has examined labor market behavior in this population. In this paper, we examine a series of questions in an attempt to better understand why the elderly continue to work. Our results indicate that labor supply is concentrated among the most educated, wealthiest, and healthiest elderly. Despite this, we find that the wages of the elderly are low both relative to younger populations and relative to the wages they earned when they themselves were young. Among individuals over the age of 70, we find that changes in health status dominate labor market transitions. Overall, our findings suggest that non-pecuniary considerations play an important role in determining elderly labor supply decisions.

Steven Haider and David Loughran.

CRR WP2001-4

CRR WP

2001-4

http://crr.bc.edu/images/stories/Working_Papers/wp_2001-04.pdf

MChBEnglisheng

MChB

Englisheng

English

eng