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Retirement: Institutional Pathways and Individual Trajectories in Britain and Germany

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  • 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
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    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. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. 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.
    12. 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.
    13. Anette Eva Fasang & Tim Futing Liao, 2014. "Visualizing Sequences in the Social Sciences," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 43(4), pages 643-676, November.
    14. 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 Er," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 48(3), pages 233-245, October.

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