Do single women value early retirement more than single men?

TY - JOUR

T1 - Do single women value early retirement more than single men?

AU - Danø, Anne Møller

AU - Ejrnæs, Mette

AU - Husted, Leif

N1 - JEL Classification: C23, J14, J16, J26

PY - 2005

Y1 - 2005

N2 - 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

AB - 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

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - retirement

KW - gender differences

KW - singles

KW - panel data

U2 - 10.1016/j.labeco.2004.03.002

DO - 10.1016/j.labeco.2004.03.002

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0927-5371

VL - 12

SP - 47

EP - 71

JO - Labour Economics

JF - Labour Economics

IS - 1

ER -