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Do earnings really decline for older workers?

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  • Kadija Charni

    (GREQAM - Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille - ECM - Ecole Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales)

  • Stephen Bazen

    () (GREQAM - Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille - ECM - Ecole Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales)

Abstract

Cross section data suggest that the relationship between age and hourly earnings is an inverted-U shape. Evidence from panel data does not necessarily confirm this finding suggesting that older workers may not experience a reduction in earnings at the end of their working life. In this paper we use panel data on males for Great Britain in order to examine why the two types of data provide conflicting conclusions. Concentrating on the over 50s, several hypotheses are examined: overlapping cohorts, job tenure, job-changing, labour supply behaviour and selectivity bias. Cohort and individual fixed effects partly explain the divergent conclusions. However, for fully, year-on-year employed individuals, there is no evidence of earnings decline at the end of working life. We find no role for selectivity due to retirement, although shorter working hours or partial retirement along with job-changing late in life do provide an explanation for why hourly earnings decline for certain older workers. We find no evidence that the process of ageing itself leads to lower earnings as suggested by the cross section profile.
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Suggested Citation

  • Kadija Charni & Stephen Bazen, 2017. "Do earnings really decline for older workers?," Post-Print hal-01691116, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01691116
    DOI: 10.1108/IJM-02-2016-0043
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal-amu.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01691116
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Eric French, 2005. "The Effects of Health, Wealth, and Wages on Labour Supply and Retirement Behaviour," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 72(2), pages 395-427.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kadija Charni, 2016. "Is it Better to Work When We Are Older? An Empirical Comparison Between France and Great Britain," Working Papers halshs-01393268, HAL.
    2. Arthur Charpentier & Emmanuel Flachaire & Antoine Ly, 2018. "Économétrie & Machine Learning," Working Papers hal-01568851, HAL.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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