Do single women value early retirement more than single men?

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

The focus of this paper is to analyse why a large fraction of single elderly people choose to retire early. A structural model directly based on the individual decision of labour supply is estimated on a sample of singles, where singles are defined as those who are living alone. We find that income and health are important determinants of the retirement decision. Furthermore, we find substantial gender differences in the retirement pattern. Healthy single women value retirement more than healthy single men and are willing to reduce their disposable income to 74% of their previous income while men are willing to reduce the income to 81%. Men's retirement decision is mainly influenced by income and health, whereas women's retirement decision is also affected by education and unemployment experience
Original languageEnglish
JournalLabour Economics
Volume12
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)47-71
ISSN0927-5371
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2005

ID: 94038