Labour force participation of the elderly in Europe: The importance of being healthy (original) (raw)
Related papers
Effects of health on the labour force participation of older persons in Europe
H e a l t h e c o n o m i c s l e t t e r q u estions d'économie de la santé results Background InstItute for research and InformatIon In health edonomIcs Address: 10, rue Vauvenargues 75018 Paris -France Téléphone : 33 (0)1 53 93 43 02/17 Télécopie : 33 (0)1 53 93 43 50 This is an international and multidisciplinary survey of a sample of households with at least one member aged 50 or over across Europe. The idea is to create a European panel database to investigate health and socio-economic aspects of ageing. The 2004 survey involved 10 the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. The survey questions, which are identical in all countries, relate to health status, socio-economic status and living conditions.
Health Economics, 2008
This paper studies labour force participation of older individuals in 11 European countries. The data are drawn from the new Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). We examine the value added of objective health indicators in relation to potentially endogenous self-reported health. We approach the endogeneity of self-reported health as an omitted variables problem. In line with the literature on the reliability of self-reported health ambiguous results are obtained. In some countries self-reported health does a fairly good job and controlling for objective health indicators does not add much to the analysis. In other countries, however, the results show that objective health indicators add significantly to the analysis and that self-reported health is endogenous due to omitted objective health indicators. These latter results illustrate the multi-dimensional nature of health and the need to control for objective health indicators when analysing the relation between health status and labour force participation. This makes an instrumental variables approach to deal with the endogeneity of self-reported health less appropriate.
Complexity, 2022
The ageing population has become one of the major issues, with manifold consequences upon the economic welfare and elderly living standards satisfaction. This paper grasps an in-depth assessment framework of the ageing phenomenon in connection with the labor market, with significant implications upon economic welfare, across the European Union (EU–27). We configure our research on four distinctive groups of the EU–27 countries based on the Active Ageing Index mapping, during 1995–2018, by acknowledging the different intensities of ageing implications on economic well-being from one group of countries to another. The methodological endeavor is based on Structural Equation Modelling. Empirical results highlight that the ageing dimensions and labor market productivity notably shape the socioeconomic development of EU countries, visibly distinguished across the four panels. The economic development induced remarkable positive spillover effects on the welfare of older people, under the i...
Unemployment and retirement and ill-health: a cross-sectional analysis across European countries
International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, 2008
Objective To determine the associations between diVerent measures of health and labor market position across ten European countries. Methods We studied 11,462 participants of the Survey on Health and Ageing in Europe (SHARE) who were 50-64 years old. Logistic regression was used to calculate the associations between health and other determinants and being retired, unemployed, or a homemaker. Results A large variation across European countries was observed for the proportion of persons 50-65 years with paid employment, varying among men from 42% in Austria to 75% in Sweden and among women from 22% in Italy to 69% in Sweden. Among employed workers 18% reported a poor health, whereas this proportion was 37% in retirees, 39% in unemployed persons, and 35% in homemakers. A perceived poor health was strongly associated with nonparticipating in labor force in most European countries. A lower education, being single, physical inactivity and a high body mass index were associated with withdrawal from the labor force. Long-term illnesses such as depression, stroke, diabetes, chronic lung disease, and musculoskeletal disease were signiWcantly more common among those persons not having paid employment. Conclusion In many European countries a poor health, chronic diseases, and lifestyle factors were associated with being out of the labor market. The results of this study suggest that in social policies to encourage employment among older persons the role of ill-health and its inXuencing factors needs to be incorporated.
SHARE, the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe goes longitudinal
2008
I n s t i t u t e f o r r e s e a r c h a n d i n f o r m a t i o n i n h e a l t h e c o n o m i c s The Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is an international, multidisciplinary and longitudinal survey, developed to address research issues on ageing. Wave 2 data, collected in 2006-07, provides panel data from respondents already interviewed in 2004-05. Since ageing should be seen as a process, rather than a state, longitudinal dimension is of foremost importance to put a stress on evolutions and transitions, as well as generation effects and causality. This issue presents some preliminary results from wave 2 of SHARE. These results deal with health and labour market dynamics. They show the influence of working conditions and institutional differences-especially concerning disability assurance enrolment, on early exits from the labour force and retirement decisions. Moreover, the new data confirms first wave analyses in terms of health disparities, and gives new insight about changes in health services utilization. Statute of the surveyed people who had stated to perceive a disablement pension in 2004 and which does not perceive any more in 2006
International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 2014
To sustain the welfare state, several EU countries agreed to take measures aimed at increasing the labor market participation of older workers (European Commission 2001). In this study, we developed a framework integrating individual, work, and institutional characteristics in order to explain the labor market participation of older workers. While prior studies focused mainly on individual characteristics, the present analysis investigated the impact of work and institutions more closely using the European Social Survey. Multilevel analyses across 21 countries showed that work characteristics increased the benefits from work, hence increasing the likelihood of participation among older workers, and that the generosity of institutions discouraged older workers to remain in the labor market.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
In many European countries, the labor market participation of older workers is considerably lower than the labor market participation of prime-age workers. This study analyzes the variation in labor market withdrawal of older workers across 13 European countries over the period 1995-2008. We seek to contribute to existing macro-econometric studies by taking non-standard employment into account, by relating the empirical model more explicitly to optional value model theory on retirement decisions and by using a two-step IV-GMM estimator to deal with endogeneity issues. The analysis leads to the conclusion that part-time employment is negatively related to labor market withdrawal of older men. This relationship is less strong among women. Additionally, we find that part-time employment at older ages does not decrease the average actual hours worked. Furthermore, the results show a positive relationship between unemployment among older workers and early retirement similar to previous studies.
The governments of many developed economies are confronting a number of policy issues associated with ageing populations. For example, pension reforms, increasing the labour force participation of older workers and increasing the standard retirement age are various policy reforms suggested by the OECD to cope with the fiscal strain associated with ageing populations. However, many of the same governments now embracing these reforms had until recent times allowed the early exit of older workers from the labour force by various means in periods of excess labour supply, leading to the allegation that these governments had treated older workers as a 'reserve army of labour'. In this paper panel models for the labour force participation of males aged 55-59 and 60-64 years in 12 OECD countries are estimated as a function of social security and labour market variables covering the time period 1967 to 2007. In contrast to previous OECD modelling, allowances are made for both country specific intercept and slope terms in various specifications, thereby allowing the incorporation of unique aspects of each country's social security system or labour market. In addition, both long run models and also short run models incorporating error correction terms are estimated. The findings suggest that the 'one size fits all' policy advocated by the OECD is inadequate to address country specific factors affecting older worker labour force participation. The recent pension reforms are now out of character with the reserve army of labour explanation and results also imply that governments in many OECD countries will struggle to increase older male labour force participation through pension policy reform alone, without addressing the important role of the aggregate labour market.
The impact of physical health on the postponement of retirement
Vienna Yearbook of Population Research
To mitigate the effects of population ageing, measures aimed at encouraging people to work longer are being implemented in many countries. However, older people are usually in poorer physical health, and poorer physical health is associated with premature labour force withdrawal. We investigate whether the age-related decline in physical health represents a hurdle to higher labour force participation levels at older ages by proposing a simulation in which the age profile of physical health stays constant over time, while all other factors that predict labour force participation are postponed. The model is fitted using data collected by the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) in 14 European countries. The results show that on average across these countries, the effect of health on labour force participation levels is small. This effect is slightly bigger in countries in which labour force participation levels and the share of the population receiving disability benefits are already high. Thus, the decline in physical health with age should not greatly limit the effectiveness of policies designed to encourage employment at older ages.
International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 2010
''Active ageing'' policies have been presented as a potential panacea for the conflict between generations many argue will result from demographic ageing. Indeed, as part of a new intergenerational contract, older individuals (here defined as those aged 50Á64) are expected to re-engage with, and remain in, the labour market longer. However, this implies all individuals experience the same policy mix. This study uses micro-level data to address changes to work and retirement policies for older individuals from 1995 to 2005, and the resultant alterations to the degree of choice in terms of labour market participation different subgroups within this age cohort had. The data demonstrate that the policy shift towards ''active ageing'' is not universally applied to all older individuals as some retain the ability to early exit from the labour market. Thus the notion of a single intergenerational contract is overly simplistic and neglects a great deal of intragenerational difference.