IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socres/v15y2010i2p1-16.html

Retirement: Institutional Pathways and Individual Trajectories in Britain and Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Anette E. Fasang

Abstract

Since the 1970s people have retired increasingly early across advanced societies. Parallel to this trend, numerous institutional early retirement pathways evolved, such as bridge unemployment and pre-retirement schemes. This article compares retirement in Britain and Germany to show how individuals progress through these institutional retirement pathways. The analysis uses longitudinal data and recent innovations in sequence analysis to capture the sequential nature of retirement as a series of transitions over time. As expected, prominent institutional retirement pathways are mirrored in individual retirement trajectories. Beyond these expected patterns, there are pronounced regularities in individual retirement trajectories outside of explicit institutional pathways. The ‘institution of the family’ is an additional powerful force in structuring women's retirement. Access to advantageous institutional retirement pathways is stratified by gender, education, income, and health. The article concludes that specific population groups, particularly women, are systematically excluded from protective institutional early retirement pathways in Britain and Germany.

Suggested Citation

  • Anette E. Fasang, 2010. "Retirement: Institutional Pathways and Individual Trajectories in Britain and Germany," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 15(2), pages 1-16, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:15:y:2010:i:2:p:1-16
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.2110
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5153/sro.2110
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5153/sro.2110?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin Kroh, 2009. "Documentation of Sample Sizes and Panel Attrition in the German Socio Economic Panel (SOEP) (1984 until 2008)," Data Documentation 47, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    2. Tobias Gramlich, 2008. "Analyse der Panelausfälle im Sozio-oekonomischen Panel SOEP," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 129, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    3. Regina Riphahn, 1997. "Disability retirement and unemployment - substitute pathways for labour force exit? An empirical test for the case of Germany," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(5), pages 551-561.
    4. Neugart, Michael & Schömann, K., 2002. "Forecasting Labour Markets in OECD Countries – Measuring and Tackling Mismatches," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 57334, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    5. Ginn, Jay & Fachinger, Uwe & Schmähl, Winfried, 2007. "Reformen der Alterssicherung und der sozioökonomische Status Älterer in Großbritannien und Deutschland [Pension reform and the socioeconomic status of older people in Britain and Germany]," MPRA Paper 3189, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Jonathan Gruber & David A. Wise, 1999. "Social Security and Retirement around the World," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number grub99-1, August.
    7. Jonathan Gruber & David A. Wise, 1999. "Introduction to "Social Security and Retirement around the World"," NBER Chapters, in: Social Security and Retirement around the World, pages 1-35, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Struffolino, Emanuela, 2019. "Navigating the early career: The social stratification of young workers’ employment trajectories in Italy," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 63, pages 1-17.
    2. Wiebke Schmitz & L. Naegele & F. Frerichs & L. Ellwardt, 2023. "Gendered late working life trajectories, family history and welfare regimes: evidence from SHARELIFE," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Struffolino, Emanuela & Zaccaria, Daniele, 2020. "Did You Realize your Preferences for Early Retirement? Insights on the Agency-Within-Structure Mechanism across Welfare Regimes," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 34(1), pages 33-58.
    4. Anna Wanka, 2020. "Continuity and change in the transition to retirement: how time allocation, leisure practices and lifestyles evolve when work vanishes in later life," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 81-93, March.
    5. Zahnow, Renee & Abewickrema, Wanuji, 2023. "Examining regularity in vehicular traffic through Bluetooth scanner data: Is the daily commuter the regular road user?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    6. Martin Wetzel & Catherine E. Bowen & Oliver Huxhold, 2019. "Level and change in economic, social, and personal resources for people retiring from paid work and other labour market statuses," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 439-453, December.
    7. Martin Wetzel & Oliver Huxhold & Clemens Tesch-Römer, 2016. "Transition into Retirement Affects Life Satisfaction: Short- and Long-Term Development Depends on Last Labor Market Status and Education," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 125(3), pages 991-1009, February.
    8. Breznau, Nate & Offerhaus, Judith, 2026. "Institutional Adult Education Regimes: Continuing Vocational Education and Training Participation and Barriers in Germany, Sweden and The United Kingdom," SocArXiv ekda2_v1, Center for Open Science.
    9. Carla Rowold, 2024. "Housewives never retire!? Gender biases in popular sample definitions for studies on the elderly," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2024-025, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    10. Taina Leinonen & Isabelle Boets & Elisabeta Pletea & Sofie Vandenbroeck & Ingrid Sivesind Mehlum & Hans Martin Hasselhorn & Astrid Wind, 2022. "A conceptual framework addressing the complex labour market dynamics of the work-to-retirement process," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1631-1637, December.
    11. Mariska van der Horst & David Lain & Sarah Vickerstaff & Charlotte Clark & Ben Baumberg Geiger, 2017. "Gender Roles and Employment Pathways of Older Women and Men in England," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(4), pages 21582440177, November.
    12. Kathrin Komp-Leukkunen, 2019. "Capturing the diversity of working age life-courses: A European perspective on cohorts born before 1945," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(2), pages 1-21, February.
    13. Liisa-Maria Palomäki, 2019. "Does It Matter How You Retire? Old-Age Retirement Routes and Subjective Economic Well-Being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(2), pages 733-751, April.
    14. Christian Dudel & Elke Loichinger & Sebastian Klüsener & Harun Sulak & Mikko Myrskylä, 2021. "The extension of late working life in Germany: trends, inequalities, and the East-West divide," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2021-018, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    15. Carla Rowold, 2024. "Full-time employment is all that matters? Quantifying the role of relevant and gender-exclusive life course experiences for gender inequalities," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2024-021, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    16. Fasang, Anette Eva & Liao, Tim Futing, 2014. "Visualizing Sequences in the Social Sciences: Relative Frequency Sequence Plots," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 43(4), pages 643-676.
    17. Anette Eva Fasang & Tim Futing Liao, 2014. "Visualizing Sequences in the Social Sciences," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 43(4), pages 643-676, November.
    18. Anita Tisch, 2015. "Health, work ability and work motivation: determinants of labour market exit among German employees born in 1959 and 1965 [Gesundheit, Arbeitsfähigkeit und Arbeitsmotivation: Beweggründe für den Erwerbsausstieg am Beispiel Erwerbstätiger der Gebur," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 48(3), pages 233-245, October.

    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. Thomas Gries & Stefan Jungblut & Tim Krieger & Henning Meyer, 2019. "Economic Retirement Age and Lifelong Learning: A Theoretical Model With Heterogeneous Labor, Biased Technical Change and International Sourcing," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 20(2), pages 129-170, May.
    2. Mario Schnalzenberger & Nicole Schneeweis & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer & Martina Zweimüller, 2014. "Job Quality and Employment of Older People in Europe," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 28(2), pages 141-162, June.
    3. Tiantian Dai & Hua Fan & Shenyi Jiang, 2025. "Labor Market Implications of Pension Reform: Analyzing Delayed Retirement Policies and Fiscal Adjustments in Aging Economies," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 26(1), pages 247-280, May.
    4. Bernardo Lanza Queiroz, 2007. "The determinants of male retirement in urban Brazil," Nova Economia, Economics Department, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Brazil), vol. 17(1), pages 11-36, January-A.
    5. Pfister, Mona & Lorenz, Svenja & Zwick, Thomas, 2018. "Calculation of pension entitlements in the sample of integrated labour market biographies (SIAB)," FDZ Methodenreport 201801_en, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    6. Rob Euwals & Annemiek van Vuren & Daniel van Vuuren, 2011. "The impact of reforms on labour market exit probabilities," CPB Discussion Paper 179, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    7. Thomas Url, 2015. "Altersvorsorgesysteme in Europa," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 57913.
    8. Gruber, Jonathan & Kanninen, Ohto & Ravaska, Terhi, 2022. "Relabeling, retirement and regret," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    9. Gilles Le Garrec & Stéphane Lhuissier, 2011. "Life expectancy, heavy work and the return to education: lessons for the social security reform," Sciences Po Economics Publications (main) hal-01069511, HAL.
    10. Calabria, Alejandro A. & D´Elia, Vanesa & Rottenschweiler, Sergio & Calero, Analía & Gaiada, Julio, 2010. "Fuentes de financiamiento de los sistemas de seguridad social en países de América del Sur [Sources of financing social security systems in countries of South America]," MPRA Paper 31892, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Assar Lindbeck & Mats Persson, 2003. "The Gains from Pension Reform," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(1), pages 74-112, March.
    12. Axel H. Börsch-Supan & Courtney Coile, 2023. "The Effects of Reforms on Retirement Behavior: Introduction and Summary," NBER Working Papers 31979, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Hugo Benítez-Silva & José Ignacio García-Pérez & Sergi Jiménez-Martín, 2014. "Reforming the U.S. Social Security system accounting for employment uncertainty," Economics Working Papers 1455, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    14. Bottazzi, Renata & Jappelli, Tullio & Padula, Mario, 2006. "Retirement expectations, pension reforms, and their impact on private wealth accumulation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(12), pages 2187-2212, December.
    15. Axel Börsch-Supan & Tabea Bucher-Koenen & Felizia Hanemann, 2018. "Early Determinants of Work Disability in an International Perspective," NBER Working Papers 25142, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Niels Vermeer & Maarten Rooij & Daniel Vuuren, 2019. "Retirement Age Preferences: The Role of Social Interactions and Anchoring at the Statutory Retirement Age," De Economist, Springer, vol. 167(4), pages 307-345, December.
    17. Laméris, Maite D. & Garretsen, Harry & Jong-A-Pin, Richard, 2020. "Political ideology and the intragenerational prospect of upward mobility," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    18. Zweimüller, Josef & Staubli, Stefan, 2011. "Does Raising the Retirement Age Increase Employment of Older Workers?," CEPR Discussion Papers 8510, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Leroux, Marie-Louise & Pestieau, Pierre & Racionero, María, 2011. "Voting on pensions: Sex and marriage," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 281-296, June.
    20. Alfonso Sánchez-Martin & J. García-Pérez & Sergi Jiménez-Martín, 2014. "Delaying the Normal and Early Retirement Ages in Spain: Behavioural and Welfare Consequences for Employed and Unemployed Workers," De Economist, Springer, vol. 162(4), pages 341-375, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:sae:socres:v:15:y:2010:i:2:p:1-16. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.