IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/geronb/v78y2023i5p891-901..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Inequalities in Retirement Life Span in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Jiaxin Shi
  • Christian Dudel
  • Christiaan Monden
  • Alyson van Raalte

Abstract

ObjectivesThe length of retirement life may be highly unequal due to persistent and significant discrepancies in old-age mortality. This study assesses gender and educational differences in the average retirement life span and the variation in retirement life span, taking into account individual labor force exit and reentry dynamics.MethodsWe used longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study from 1996 to 2016, focusing on respondents aged 50 and older (N = 32,228). Multistate life tables were estimated using discrete-time event history models. The average retirement life span, as well as absolute and relative variation in retirement life span, were calculated analytically.ResultsAmong women, we found a persistent educational gradient in average retirement life span over the whole period studied; among men, the relationship between education and retirement expectancy differed across periods. Women and the lower-educated had higher absolute variation in retirement life span than men and the higher-educated—yet these relationships were reversed when examined by relative variation.DiscussionOur multistate approach provides an accurate and comprehensive picture of the retirement life span of older Americans over the past two decades. Such findings should be considered in high-level discussions on Social Security. Potential reforms such as raising the eligibility age or cutting benefits may have unexpected implications for different social groups due to their differential effects on retirement initiation and reentry dynamics.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiaxin Shi & Christian Dudel & Christiaan Monden & Alyson van Raalte, 2023. "Inequalities in Retirement Life Span in the United States," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 78(5), pages 891-901.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:78:y:2023:i:5:p:891-901.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbac180
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dustin Brown & Mark Hayward & Jennifer Montez & Robert Hummer & Chi-Tsun Chiu & Mira Hidajat, 2012. "The Significance of Education for Mortality Compression in the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(3), pages 819-840, August.
    2. Isaac Sasson, 2016. "Trends in Life Expectancy and Lifespan Variation by Educational Attainment: United States, 1990–2010," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(2), pages 269-293, April.
    3. Adriaan Kalwij & Rob Alessie & Marike Knoef, 2013. "The Association Between Individual Income and Remaining Life Expectancy at the Age of 65 in the Netherlands," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(1), pages 181-206, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Malene Kallestrup‐Lamb & Søren Kjærgaard & Carsten P. T. Rosenskjold, 2020. "Insight into stagnating adult life expectancy: Analyzing cause of death patterns across socioeconomic groups," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(12), pages 1728-1743, December.
    2. Vincenzo Atella & Dana Goldman & Daniel McFadden, 2021. "Disparate ageing: The role of education and socioeconomic gradients in future health and disability in an international context," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(S1), pages 3-10, November.
    3. 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.
    4. Christian Dudel & Mikko Myrskylä, 2016. "Recent trends in US working life expectancy at age 50 by gender, education, and race/ethnicity and the impact of the Great Recession," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2016-006, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    5. Seaman, Rosie & Riffe, Tim & Leyland, Alastair H. & Popham, Frank & van Raalte, Alyson, 2019. "The increasing lifespan variation gradient by area-level deprivation: A decomposition analysis of Scotland 1981–2011," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 147-157.
    6. Iñaki Permanyer & Jeroen Spijker & Amand Blanes & Elisenda Renteria, 2018. "Longevity and Lifespan Variation by Educational Attainment in Spain: 1960–2015," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(6), pages 2045-2070, December.
    7. Jiaxin Shi & Christian Dudel & Christiaan Monden & Alyson A. van Raalte, 2022. "Inequalities in retirement lifespan in the United States," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2022-015, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    8. Jennifer Karas Montez & Anna Zajacova & Mark D. Hayward & Steven H. Woolf & Derek Chapman & Jason Beckfield, 2019. "Educational Disparities in Adult Mortality Across U.S. States: How Do They Differ, and Have They Changed Since the Mid-1980s?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(2), pages 621-644, April.
    9. Katrina M. Walsemann & Calley E. Fisk & Mateo P. Farina & Emily Abbruzzi & Jennifer A. Ailshire, 2023. "Race, gender, and cohort differences in the educational experiences of Black and White Americans," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(6), pages 1-23, December.
    10. Strulik, Holger, 2018. "The return to education in terms of wealth and health," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 12(C), pages 1-14.
    11. David Escamilla-Guerrero & Edward Kosack & Zachary Ward, 2023. "The Impact of Violence during the Mexican Revolution on Migration to the United States," NBER Working Papers 31531, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Viorela Diaconu & Alyson van Raalte & Pekka Martikainen, 2022. "Why we should monitor disparities in old-age mortality with the modal age at death," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(2), pages 1-13, February.
    13. Vesile Kutlu-Koc & Adriaan Kalwij, 2017. "Individual Survival Expectations and Actual Mortality: Evidence from Dutch Survey and Administrative Data," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 33(4), pages 509-532, October.
    14. A. Remund & S. Cullati & S. Sieber & C. Burton-Jeangros & M. Oris, 2019. "Longer and healthier lives for all? Successes and failures of a universal consumer-driven healthcare system, Switzerland, 1990–2014," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 64(8), pages 1173-1181, November.
    15. José M. Aburto & Alyson A. van Raalte, 2017. "Lifespan dispersion in times of life expectancy fluctuation: the case of Central and Eastern Europe," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2017-018, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    16. Jennifer Karas Montez & Kaitlyn Barnes, 2016. "The Benefits of Educational Attainment for U.S. Adult Mortality: Are they Contingent on the Broader Environment?," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 35(1), pages 73-100, February.
    17. Joseph T. Lariscy & Claudia Nau & Glenn Firebaugh & Robert A. Hummer, 2016. "Hispanic-White Differences in Lifespan Variability in the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(1), pages 215-239, February.
    18. Bravo, Jorge M. & Ayuso, Mercedes & Holzmann, Robert & Palmer, Edward, 2021. "Addressing the life expectancy gap in pension policy," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 200-221.
    19. Juan Manuel Pérez-Salamero González & Marta Regúlez-Castillo & Carlos Vidal-Meliá, 2021. "Differences in Life Expectancy Between Self-Employed Workers and Paid Employees when Retirement Pensioners: Evidence from Spanish Social Security Records," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 37(3), pages 697-725, July.
    20. Johnston, David W. & Lordan, Grace & Shields, Michael A. & Suziedelyte, Agne, 2015. "Education and health knowledge: Evidence from UK compulsory schooling reform," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 92-100.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:78:y:2023:i:5:p:891-901.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.