Retirees' well-being: the impact of involuntary retirement and bridge employment.

SAMENVATTING: Pensionering wordt steeds meer gezien als een proces waarin ouderen ook na (vervroegde) uittreding nog actief kunnen worden op de arbeidsmarkt in zogenoemde doorstartbanen. In het hier gepresenteerde onderzoek is nagegaan wat de consequenties van dit doorstarten zijn voor hoe gepensioneerden hun leven ervaren. De verwachting was dat de invloed van doorstarten op het welbevinden afhangt van de vrijwilligheid van het uittredeproces. Bovendien werden verschillen in welbevinden verwacht voor de verschillende motieven om door te starten na uittreden. De gegevens zijn ontleend aan paneldata voor Nederlandse oudere werknemers. De resultaten van de conditionele veranderingsmodellen laten zien dat een onvrijwillige beëindiging van de carrière samenhangt met een afname in welbevinden ten opzichte van vrijwillig gepensioneerden. Doorstarten blijkt echter dit negatieve effect te kunnen compenseren. De resultaten bevestigen ook dat ouderen die graag door wilden starten na pensioen maar niet succesvol bleken in het vinden van werk, een afname in het welbevinden rapporteerden. Verder blijkt doorstarten om financiële redenen negatief te zijn voor het welbevinden, terwijl mensen die om intrinsieke redenen doorwerken een toename in welbevinden ervaren. De bevindingen van dit onderzoek dragen bij aan de kennis over hoe verschillende pensioentransities het leven na pensioen beïnvloeden. Dit artikel is een inkorting en bewerking van het artikel: Dingemans, E., & Henkens, K. Involuntary retirement, bridge employment, and satisfaction with life: A longitudinal investigation. Journal of Organizational Behavior 2014; 35(4), 575-591. DOI: 10.1002/job.1914 .

[Living longer, working longer? The impact of subjective life expectancy on retirement intentions and behavior]. / Langer leven, langer werken? De rol van gepercipieerde levensverwachting in het uittredeproces.

Virtually all Western countries are seeking to bring retirement ages more in line with increases in longevity. The central question in this paper is whether individuals choose a retirement age that fits their life expectancy. This would be ideal from a public policy perspective. The present study aims to test empirically whether retirement planning varies with expectations of survival among a sample of older employees in the Netherlands. Two questions are addressed: (1) What are older employees' expectations of their remaining lifetime, and what factors influence this subjective life expectancy? (2) Are individuals who perceive longer life horizons (high subjective life expectancy) more inclined to retire later than people who expect to live shorter? Using data from a panel study on retirement behaviour in the Netherlands (N=1621 older employees aged 50-60), regression and survival models are estimated to examine the effect of subjective life expectancy on retirement planning and behaviour. The results indicate that subjective life expectancy is a factor that is taken into account in retirement decision making, at least as far as retirement intentions are concerned. Older employees with longer time horizons have a preference for later retirement. When it comes to actual behaviour, however, time horizon does not appear to play a role. The results suggest that particularly employees with a high perceived life expectancy and an intention to work longer do not succeed in carrying their intentions into effect.

[Burnout, work characteristics and retirement intentions]. / Burnout en pensioenplannen bij oudere werknemers.

We investigated whether there is a relationship between burnout and work characteristics and retirement intentions from older workers. Data were taken from a survey held among Dutch older workers (50+) and their spouses (N=2,892). The results show that high workload, heavy physical work, and lack of challenge are related to burnout. No effect, however, was found for competence. Besides the effect of burnout, retirement intentions are related to the level of marital quality. Older workers who report a higher level of marital quality report a stronger intention to retire. Burnout and retirement intentions are related, but appear to be two different processes. While burnout can generally be explained by the work environment, nonwork related factors enhance our understanding of retirement intentions. This study shows that actual retirement is often preceded by feelings of burnout, in particular a mental detachment from work and feelings of exhaustion.

Retirement intentions and spousal support: a multi-actor approach.

OBJECTIVES: This study investigates the role of the partner in the retirement decision-making process. It determines the extent to which the support and intentions of partners regarding early retirement influence each other, and which partner dominates. METHODS: Data have been collected directly from 1,052 older employees working in Dutch industry and trade, and from their spouses. Because it is conceptualized that husbands' and wives' retirement intentions/support are related in a reciprocal way, a two-stage least squares regression analysis (2SLS) is used to establish the specified mutual relationships. RESULTS: Intentions and support of both partners concerning retirement are strongly related. The results of the 2SLS suggest that early retirement of one of the spouses is the result of influence processes within the household, and that early retirement can be considered, to a certain extent, a household decision. This holds for married men's early retirement in particular. There seems to be no direct causal relationship between a couple's own decision making with respect to early retirement and the retirement behavior of a couple's social network. DISCUSSION: Future research on the retirement decision-making process should focus on the family unit rather than simply on the individual worker, and be extended to different types of retirement behavior.

The budgetary dilemmas of an ageing workforce: a scenario study of the public sector in the Netherlands.

PIP: This study examined the budgetary consequences of alternative policies on aging in the public sector in the Netherlands. Budgetary consequences include salaried employee costs, the benefit costs of the inactive population aged under 65 years, and the implicit costs of not replacing retired workers. Data were obtained from the largest pension fund (ABP). Public sector includes all sectors covered by the ABP and includes all civil servants, educational workers, and noncommercial services, excluding health care. The authors construct a flow-model of public sector workers in 1993, with varying age specific rates of change in inflow, outflow, and position. Scenarios answer questions about the impact of aging on labor productivity and demand for new workers, and the effects of redistributing labor, changing early retirement schemes (ERS), and retiring part-time. It is assumed that labor productivity per hour is the same regardless of age. Salary increases with age, but scenarios assume a constant age-salary profile. Participation in senior worker schemes and/or use of inactivity schemes by restricting eligibility criteria will not generate substantial savings in public spending. ERS cutbacks will pass expenses on to other agencies and not reduce total public spending. Increased part-time retirement produces limited budgetary benefits. Costs increase with age and are reflected in ERS and unemployment schemes. Alternatives will reflect disability costs, salary costs of active workers, or unemployment benefits to young people who cannot find jobs because older workers are retiring too slowly. Aging societies are expensive.^ieng

[Who wants to go in early retirement? A multivariate analysis of civil servants' intention to retire early or not]. / Wie willen er met de vut? Een multivariate analyse van het voornemen van rijksambtenaren om al dan niet vervroegd uit te treden.

Despite the popularity of early retirement schemes in the Netherlands, little attention has been paid to the factors underlying this phenomenon. In this article an initial step is taken towards a multivariate modelling of plans for taking voluntary early retirement of older employees. Data for this have been obtained from a survey conducted among civil servants eligible for early retirement. This analysis includes various aspects which could be related to retirement. It appears that the attitude towards work, health, expectations regarding the consequences of retirement with respect to the loss of income, self-esteem, the perceived (positive or negative) attitude of the partner are the main reasons for civil servants to retire early or not. In the last model, containing all independent variables, 25 percent of the variance can be explained.

The labour supply of married and cohabiting women in the Netherlands, 1981-1989.

"In this article we investigate the differences in labour supply of married women and cohabiting women in the Netherlands; we try to answer the question how these differences can be explained. From this study, it can be concluded that differences between both categories of women in participation and in weekly hours worked can predominantly be explained by differences in characteristics (e.g. age, net wage rate, and age of children), than by differences in behaviour. The empirical results indicate that cohabiting women are more economically independent than married women. However for married women we found evidence that there was increased economic independence during the eighties; i.e. their weekly hours work has become less affected by the income of their partners." (SUMMARY IN FRE)

The decision to retire: the case of Dutch men aged 50-64.

"The main aim of this paper is to determine the extent to which people respond to economic incentives with respect to the decision to retire from the labour force. The data used are for Dutch men aged 50-64. First, a brief description is given of the labour force status of the elderly in the Netherlands. Then an attempt is made to estimate the impact on the retirement decision of the replacement rate and the income of the spouse by estimating a five-equation model. It is concluded that these economic factors play a significant role." (SUMMARY IN FRE)