After a long decline, the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) of older men in the United States leveled off in the 1980s, and began to increase in the late 1990s. We examine how changes in Social Security rules affected these trends. We attribute only a small portion of the decline from the 1960s-80s to the increasing generosity of Social…

The labor supply and benefit claiming incentives provided by the early retirement rules of the Social Security Old Age benefits program are of growing importance as the Normal Retirement Age (NRA) increases to 67, the labor force participation of Older Americans rises, and a variety of reforms to the Social Security system are considered. Any…

Purpose: This article investigates how older Americans leave their career jobs and estimates the extent of intermediate labor force activity (bridge jobs) between full-time work on a career job and complete labor-force withdrawal. Design and Methods: Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, we explored the work histories and retirement…

Using a time series analysis to test the net empirical importance of the substitution and wealth effects associated with social security on the market of work of younger men, it was found that hours per week worked would have fallen off since 1936 without the present social security system. (Author)

Countries with mature social security systems have declining rates of labor force participation of the aged. The experience of nine countries (United States, Canada, Belgium, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom) over the last two decades provided the statistical data presented and analyzed in the…

Data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation were matched with longitudinal earnings histories and Social Security benefit data to estimate joint work and benefit receipt choices for people age 62 and older. The probability of working is shown to depend on worker characteristics and policy variables. (Author)

A study analyzed the changing nature of older persons in the labor force, factors that may affect their work decisions, and policy changes that could facilitate their continuation or reentry into the work force beyond the normal retirement age. Data examined during the survey indicate that while the number of people aged 65 and older is continuing…

The U.S. population includes over 23 million women aged 45 to 64 and 17 million women aged 65 and over. Their life experiences are very different from those of men. The median total income of women trails that of men at all ages. Women at all ages are twice as likely as men to be poor. Poverty among the elderly is closely associated with sole…

As increasing numbers of women make the transition from the household sector into the labor market, dramatic changes in household composition have occurred that have thrust many women into the role of provider. This new role for women has led to dramatic and rapid changes in attitudes, as well as in the institutions and laws relating to women's…