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Valuing Jobs via Retirement: European Evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Andrew E. Clark  and
Yarine Fawaz
Andrew E. Clark*
Affiliation:
Paris School of Economics and IZA
Yarine Fawaz
Affiliation:
Paris School of Economics
*
e-mail: Andrew.Clark@ens.fr.
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Abstract

While much has been made of the value of employment relative to unemployment, much less is known about the value of work relative to retirement. Here we use two European panel datasets to show first that psychological well-being (measured on the EURO-D and GHQ scales) barely changes on average when individuals retire. However, there is a great deal of heterogeneity in the size of this change between job type and between individuals. Some gain on leaving work, while others experience substantial falls in well-being on retiring, suggesting that they may have preferred to carry on working. We suggest that the results of these analyses can help to inform policy aiming to encourage labour supply by older workers.

Keywords

Job qualitywell-beingemploymentretirementI31J26J81
Type
Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 209 , July 2009 , pp. 88 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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Footnotes

∗

The BHPS data were made available through the ESRC Data Archive. The data were originally collected by the ESRC Research Centre on Micro-social Change at the University of Essex. Neither the original collectors of the data nor the Archive bear any responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented here. This paper uses data from SHARE Waves 1 & 2, as of December 2008. SHARE data collection in 2004–2007 was primarily funded by the European Commission through its 5th and 6th framework programmes (project numbers QLK6-CT-2001- 00360; RII-CT- 2006-062193; CIT5-CT-2005-028857). Additional funding by the US National Institute on Aging (grant numbers U01 AG09740-13S2; P01 AG005842; P01 AG08291; P30 AG12815; Y1-AG-4553-01; OGHA 04-064; R21 AG025169) as well as by various national sources is gratefully acknowledged (see http://www.shareproject.org for a full list of funding institutions). We thank Alex Bryson, Simon Chapple, Justina Fischer and Nicolas Sirven for useful suggestions.

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