Concepedia

Labor Force Dynamics of Older Men

David M. Blau

Econometrica · 1994 · 244 citations · 1 references

Concepts

TL;DR

The study aims to describe and analyze movements of older men among labor force states in the United States. It uses quarterly observations from the Retirement History Survey to conduct this analysis. The analysis reveals substantial undercounts in biannual data, shows that labor‑force dynamics at older ages are significant—including duration, spell dependence, and work‑experience effects that are robust to nonparametric controls—and finds that social‑security benefits strongly influence transition timing, though changes in benefit levels have not driven the trend toward earlier exit.

Abstract

"This paper describes and analyzes movements of older men among labor force states [in the United States] using quarterly observations derived from the Retirement History Survey (RHS)." The results indicate "substantial undercounts in the biannual data, indicating that the prevalence of labor force movements at older ages has been underestimated previously.... The results show that labor force dynamics at older ages are important, including duration and spell occurrence dependence, and work experience effects. These effects are robust to nonparametric controls for unobserved heterogeneity. The estimates indicate that social security benefits have strong effects on the timing of labor force transitions at older ages, but that changes in social security benefit levels over time have not contributed much to the trend toward earlier labor force exit."

References

1

Retirement, Pensions, and Social Security

James L. Swofford, Gary S. Fields, Olivia S. Mitchell · Southern Economic Journal · 1986

+23

114 citations