In this paper the authors examine how the structures of earnings, Social Security, and pension benefits affect retirement behavior. They use an intertemporal model of labor supply, paying special attention to the institutional features of private pensions and Social Security benefits. (Author/SSH)

A study documented the continued backloading of pension benefits and the extent of retirement incentives by examining pension accrual in 1,183 U.S. defined benefit pension plans in 1979 and in one large Fortune 500 firm in 1984. Among the findings on the defined benefit pension plans were the following: many plans exhibit significant backloading;…

This monograph reports on an inquiry into the likely distributional effects of recent reductions in the payment of unemployment insurance to recipients of pension and social security benefits and its potential effects on labor market and consumption behavior of older people. An introductory chapter provides facts about unemployment insurance and…

This document contains the bases of lectures delivered in Florida by a visiting Stockholm University sociology professor. The first chapter, "Growing Old in Sweden," includes information on the income, standard of living, and quality of services available to the elderly in that country. That information is presented within the changing…

Until the beginning of 1994, federal law permitted mandatory retirement of tenured faculty at age 70. The Committee on Mandatory Retirement in Higher Education, formed by the National Research Council, was charged by Congress to examine potential effects on colleges, universities, and faculty members of ending the exemption for tenured faculty…

The transcripts of testimony given before the Senate Committee on Aging by the Secretary of the Department of Labor, F. Ray Marshall, and Ewan Clague, consultant and former Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, are presented. Issues reviewed in these statements address the following areas of concern: retirement trends, economic…

As life expectancy increases, more people continue working later in life. Some retirement plans offer incentives, others disincentives to retire. Health, life, and disability insurance plans often have different provisions for older workers. (SK)

The impact on employee benefit plans of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act amendments that raised the mandatory retirement age is addressed through a discussion and analysis of legislative history, court decisions, Department of Labor regulations, wage-hour rulings, and opinion letters. (Author/JMD)

This document, examining transition to retirement from a sociological perspective, consists of four sections and a 14-item bibliography. The first section traces the evolution of West German retirement from what was considered a new phenomenon into what is now commonly assumed to be a normal or even natural life stage. The second section discusses…

Recent trends toward earlier retirement have exacerbated the financial problems facing the Social Security system and many other public and private pension plans. The massive commitment of public and private funds to Social Security and pension funds is partly responsible for the trend to early retirement. This, in fact, was one of the early goals…

Older women, who comprise two-thirds of the retired U.S. population, share substantially less of the $1.3 trillion worth of over 800,000 private and public pension plans by every way of measurement. Of the one-in-five women receiving pension income, some obtain it from their own paid work history, while others are widows and divorced women who…

The transition into retirement is the principal focus of this paper. The first four sections of the paper discuss the nature of the retirement component of the Employment and Retirement Need Area; identify goals proposed by previous conferences and groups; present information on the knowledge available with respect to retirement and the retirement…

Purpose: We attempt to determine whether older workers and early retirees avoid managed care plans and to explore whether health plan choices are linked to the health status of workers or their spouses. Design and Methods: We use the responses of those born between 1931 and 1941 to the 1994 and 1998 waves of the Health and Retirement Survey. We…

This document consists of a series of tables that display data derived from a survey of 33 companies that provide employer supported caregiver programs for the elderly. The tables outline the following information: (1) factors enhancing employer-supported eldercare development; (2) factors inhibiting employer-supported eldercare development; (3)…

Many older workers want to continue working on a part-time basis after "retirement." The authors highlight the findings of a survey of 1,200 workers age 50 and over employed at a large high-technology company. (Author)