Examines the risk of poverty among a sample of elderly couples and widows interviewed over a 10-year period. When individual movements into and out of poverty over time are identified, the risk of becoming poor is more than double the highest annual risk among couples, and is raised by almost 30 percent for widows. (Author/ABB)

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…

Empirical evidence of tax shelter usage is sparse. These data add weight to earlier concerns about whether tax incentives to save for retirement benefit upper-income groups more than middle- and lower-income groups and present the importance of different sources of income in providing retirement funds for this group. (Author/RC)

Describes Australia's retirement income arrangements, including age pension, private pensions, changes in provisions by the federal government, and factors that shaped changes. Notes that difficulties experienced by the government in introducing changes underscore political sensitivity of retirement income policy in Australia. (Author/NB)

Projected implications of population aging are based on a definition of retirement age as 65. This article discusses the concept of "equivalent retirement ages" as a method for determining appropriate age for normal retirement and points out usefulness and limitations of raising normal retirement age as a policy instrument. (BF)

Interviews with faculty at a university having an incentive early retirement plan revealed that those choosing to retire early were in poorer health, faced smaller proportional income decrement upon retirement, were less satisfied with teaching assignments, and considered themselves lower in research productivity and higher in teaching and…

Analyzes the development of women's pensions compared to the progress of men's benefits from 1960 to 1980 in industrial countries. Comparisons are based on benefit amounts of average wage earners in manufacturing. Findings are that women's benefits did not keep pace with men's pensions in 5 of the nations studied. (Author/ABB)

Recent policy proposals have introduced need-based criteria, as well as the principle of wealthier older persons paying greater taxes or sharing more heavily in financing services and benefits than those who have less income and accumulated wealth. This article reviews emergence of new approaches and concludes with commentary on political…

Explores relationship between recent policy reforms, targeting proposals, and a universal Social Security program. Explores principles that inform Social Security, concluding that treating benefits as taxable income and raising retirement age push at boundaries of universality without violating fundamental precepts of social insurance program. (BF)

Purpose: Retirees in traditional pension plans must generally choose between single life annuities, which provide regular payments until death, and joint and survivor annuities, which pay less each month but continue to make payments to the spouse after the death of the retired worker. This article examines the payout decision and measures the…

Attempts to explain how institutional mechanisms such as labor markets and pensions stratify the availability of resources and rewards, and interact with life course processes related to labor force history and job mobility to produce income and wealth inequality among the elderly. (SNR)

Presents findings on the work disincentives which are expected to be removed by the 1983 Amendments to the Social Security Act. Summarizes evidence on labor market conditions which may encourage early retirement. Discusses implications of this evidence for public policy and for the economic well-being of older Americans. (Author/ABB)

Using a nationwide survey, found work expectations change dramatically during years normally associated with retirement; over two-fifths of those never expecting to stop working were retired four years later; those expecting to retire were more likely to reach that goal. Argues against cross-sectional studies in planning Social Security changes.…

Presents four papers discussing issues in the regulation of employer pensions, trends in pension coverage and benefit receipt, restrictive pension provisions and older workers, and indexing retirement benefits. (JAC)

Raising the age of mandatory retirement will retard the rate of promotional prospects only slightly in the economy. Larger delays will occur for top positions. Individual firms may experience greater delays depending on their rate of growth, previous retirement age, and willingness of older workers to remain on the job. (Author)