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Working and disability expectancies at old ages: the role of childhood circumstances and education

Author

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  • Angelo Lorenti

    (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany)

  • Christian Dudel

    (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany)

  • Jo M. Hale

    (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany)

  • Mikko Myrskylä

    (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany)

Abstract

The ability to work at older ages depends on health and education. Both accumulate starting very early in life. We assess how childhood disadvantages combine with education to affect working and health trajectories. Applying multistate period life tables to data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) for the period 2008-2014, we estimate how the residual life expectancy at age 50 is distributed in number of years of work and disability, by number of childhood disadvantages, gender, and race/ethnicity. Our findings indicate that number of childhood disadvantages is negatively associated with work and positively with disability, irrespective of gender and race/ethnicity. Childhood disadvantages intersect with low education resulting in shorter lives, and redistributing life years from work to disability. Among the highly educated, health and work differences between groups of childhood disadvantage are small. Combining multistate models and inverse probability weighting, we show that the return of high education is greater among the most disadvantaged.

Suggested Citation

  • Angelo Lorenti & Christian Dudel & Jo M. Hale & Mikko Myrskylä, 2020. "Working and disability expectancies at old ages: the role of childhood circumstances and education," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2020-006, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2020-006
    DOI: 10.4054/MPIDR-WP-2020-006
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    9. Christian Dudel & Mikko Myrskylä, 2017. "Working Life Expectancy at Age 50 in the United States and the Impact of the Great Recession," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(6), pages 2101-2123, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Anastasia A. Lam & Katherine Keenan & Mikko Myrskylä & Hill Kulu, 2022. "Multimorbid life expectancy across race, socioeconomic status, and gender in South Africa," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2022-024, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    2. Hale, Jo Mhairi & Dudel, Christian & Lorenti, Angelo, 2020. "Cumulative disparities in the dynamics of working poverty for later-career U.S. workers (2002-2012)," SocArXiv xka5j, Center for Open Science.
    3. Florina BRAN & Petrica Sorin ANGHELUTA & Oana Camelia IACOB PARGARU & Maria Loredana POPESCU & Laurentiu COROBAN, 2022. "Aspects regarding the Level of Education in the Context of Sustainable Development," REVISTA DE MANAGEMENT COMPARAT INTERNATIONAL/REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE MANAGEMENT, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 23(5), pages 604-611, December.
    4. Jo M. Hale & Christian Dudel & Angelo Lorenti, 2020. "Cumulative disparities in the dynamics of working poverty for later-career U.S. workers (2002-2012)," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2020-028, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    5. Jo M. Hale & Daniel C. Schneider & Neil K. Mehta & Mikko Myrskylä, 2023. "Intersectionality and opportunity-weighted cumulative (dis)advantage," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2023-040, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    6. Jo M. Hale & Daniel C. Schneider & Neil K. Mehta & Mikko Myrskylä, 2022. "Understanding cognitive impairment in the U.S. through the lenses of intersectionality and (un)conditional cumulative (dis)advantage," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2022-029, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    USA; disability; early childhood; education; ethnicity; length of working life; Markov chains;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

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