Document Type
Working Paper
Date of this Version
1-1-2004
Abstract
We compare older workers’ plans for work and retirement with their subsequent work and retirement outcomes using panel data from the Health and Retirement Study. Among those with retirement plans, about half indicate they would like to cut back on their work hours or otherwise change the type of work they do prior to, or instead of, fully retiring. Yet the fraction that follows through on these alternative plans is dramatically lower than the fraction that realizes plans to stop working. Our analysis shows that individuals who likely would need to change jobs in order to reduce their work hours are much less likely to have plans to reduce hours and, conditional on having such plans, are much less likely to follow through on them. Instead, a large fraction of these individuals stops working entirely. Our findings suggest that older workers may face substantial barriers to job change, and we conclude with a discussion of potential policy implications.
Working Paper Number
WP2004-03
Copyright/Permission Statement
©2004 Pension Research Council of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. All Rights Reserved.
Date Posted: 30 August 2019
Comments
The published version of this Working Paper may be found in the 2005 publication: Reinventing the Retirement Paradigm.