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Back to Work: Expectations and Realizations of Work After Retirement

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Author Info
Nicole Maestas (RAND)
Abstract

This paper analyzes labor force re-entry after retirement in an effort to understand whether these “unretirement” transitions are largely unexpected (perhaps resulting from failures in planning or unexpected financial shocks) or planned (perhaps representing a more complex retirement process). Nearly one-half of retirees follow a nontraditional retirement path that involves partial retirement and/or unretirement, and the unretirement rate among those observed at least five years after their first retirement is 24 percent. The unretirement rate is even higher among those retiring at younger ages (as high as 36 percent among those retiring at ages 51-52). I find that unretirement was anticipated for all but nine percent of retirees. If anything, expectations err on the side of excessive pessimism about the future rather than unwarranted optimism. Unretirement appears to be qualitatively similar to partial retirement and there is some evidence of a substantial correlation in the post-retirement labor supply transitions of married couples.

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Paper provided by University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center in its series Working Papers with number wp085.

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Length: 42 pages
Date of creation: Jul 2004
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Handle: RePEc:mrr:papers:wp085

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  1. Michael Hurd & Susann Rohwedder, 2003. "The Retirement-Consumption Puzzle: Anticipated and Actual Declines in Spending at Retirement," Working Papers 03-12, RAND Corporation Publications Department. [Downloadable!]
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  2. John Ameriks & Andrew Caplin & John Leahy, 2002. "Retirement Consumption: Insights from a Survey," NBER Working Papers 8735, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. Mette Gørtz, 2006. "Heterogeneity in Preferences and Productivity – Implications for Retirement," CAM Working Papers 2006-01, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Centre for Applied Microeconometrics. [Downloadable!]
  2. Steven Haider & Mel StephensJr., 2006. "How Accurate are Expected Retirement Savings?," Working Papers wp128, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center. [Downloadable!]
  3. John Laitner & Dan Silverman, 2007. "Life-Cycle Models: Lifetime Earnings and the Timing of Retirement," Working Papers wp165, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center. [Downloadable!]
  4. David M. Blau, 2007. "Retirement and Consumption in a Life Cycle Model," IZA Discussion Papers 2986, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  5. David M. Blau & Tetyana Shvydko, 2007. "Labor Market Rigidities and the Employment Behavior of Older Workers," IZA Discussion Papers 2996, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  6. Joshua Congdon-Hohman, 2006. "The Impact of Health Insurance Availability on Retirement Decision Reversals," Working Papers wp137, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center. [Downloadable!]
  7. James Marton & Stephen A. Woodbury, 2009. "Retiree Health Benefits and the Decision to Retire," Staff Working Papers 09-149, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Monika Bütler & Olivia Huguenin & Federica Teppa, 2005. "Why Forcing People to Save Retirement May Backfire," Cahiers de Recherches Economiques du Département d'Econométrie et d'Economie politique (DEEP) 05.05, Université de Lausanne, Faculté des HEC, DEEP. [Downloadable!]
  9. Monika Bütler & Olivia Huguenin & Federica Teppa, 2005. "What Triggers Early Retirement? Results from Swiss Pension Funds," DNB Working Papers 041, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department. [Downloadable!]
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  10. Monika Bütler & Olivia Huguenin & Federica Teppa, 2005. "Why Forcing People to Save for Retirement may Backfire," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
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  11. Helen Levy & Kristin Seefeldt, 2008. "How Do Lower-Income Families Think about Retirement?," Working Papers wp195, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center. [Downloadable!]
  12. Nicole Maestas & Xiaoyan Li, 2006. "Discouraged Workers? Job Search Outcomes of Older Workers," Working Papers wp133, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center. [Downloadable!]
  13. Lucie Schmidt & Purvi Sevak, 2008. "Taxes, Wages, and the Labor Supply of Older Americans," Department of Economics Working Papers 2008-16, Department of Economics, Williams College. [Downloadable!]
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  14. Kristin J. Kleinjans & Jinkook Lee, 2006. "The link between individual expectations and savings: Do nursing home expectations matter?," Economics Working Papers 2006-05, School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus. [Downloadable!]
  15. Kevin E. Cahill & Michael D. Giandrea & Joseph F. Quinn, 2006. "A Micro-level Analysis of Recent Increases in Labor Force Participation among Older Workers," Working Papers 400, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. [Downloadable!]
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