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Increases in wellbeing in the transition to retirement for the unemployed: catching up with formerly employed persons
[journal article]
Abstract This paper examines the extent to which wellbeing levels change in the transition to retirement depending on transitioning from being employed, unemployed or economically inactive. Whereas transitioning from employment to unemployment has been found to cause a decrease in subjective wellbeing with m... view more
This paper examines the extent to which wellbeing levels change in the transition to retirement depending on transitioning from being employed, unemployed or economically inactive. Whereas transitioning from employment to unemployment has been found to cause a decrease in subjective wellbeing with more time spent in unemployment, it is not clear how transitioning from unemployment to retirement affects wellbeing levels. We use the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe to monitor the life satisfaction of respondents who retire in between two waves. We portray wellbeing scores before and after retirement and then identify the change in life satisfaction during the retirement transition using a First Difference model. Results indicate that being unemployed before retirement is associated with an increase in life satisfaction, but presents mainly a catching-up effect compared to employed persons transitioning to retirement. These results are still significant if we control for selection into unemployment and country differences. Retirement from labour market inactivity does not lead to significant changes in wellbeing. As the wellbeing of unemployed persons recovers after transitioning to retirement, especially the currently unemployed population should be supported to prevent detrimental consequences of economically unfavourable conditions and lower wellbeing.... view less
Keywords
retirement age; retirement; pensioning; unemployment; well-being; satisfaction with life; mental health; Europe
Classification
Gerontology
Free Keywords
transition; labour market inactivity; subjective wellbeing; Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), wave 2 (2006/07) and wave 4 (2011/12)
Document language
English
Publication Year
2019
Page/Pages
p. 254-276
Journal
Ageing & Society, 39 (2019) 2
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X17000976
ISSN
1469-1779
Status
Postprint; peer reviewed
Licence
Creative Commons - Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0