IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ilrrev/v37y1984i3p416-430.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Labor-Force Participation of Older Workers

Author

Listed:
  • James E. Duggan

Abstract

This study examines the decision to participate in the labor force made by persons over 54 years of age. Through the use of a set of pooled time-series cross-section observations from the Current Population Survey over the years 1974 – 80, the analysis emphasizes the effect of two factors on this decision: cohort crowding and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The empirical results reveal that pressures arising from the relative growth in the youth population led to increased labor market activity by older women; that retirement incentives in the form of SSI and social security had a negative effect on female as well as male labor-force behavior, though the effects were considerably stronger for men; and that the differential between men's and women's participation rates was largely a result of the female response to marital status and retirement incentives.

Suggested Citation

  • James E. Duggan, 1984. "The Labor-Force Participation of Older Workers," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 37(3), pages 416-430, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:37:y:1984:i:3:p:416-430
    DOI: 10.1177/001979398403700307
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001979398403700307
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/001979398403700307?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. Grant, James H & Hamermesh, Daniel S, 1981. "Labor Market Competition among Youths, White Women and Others," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 63(3), pages 354-360, August.
    2. Richard A. Easterlin, 1968. "Population, Labor Force, and Long Swings in Economic Growth: The American Experience," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number east68-1.
    3. Olivia S. Mitchell & Gary S. Fields, 1981. "The Effects of Pensions and Earnings on Retirement: A Review Essay," NBER Working Papers 0772, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Joseph F. Quinn, 1977. "Microeconomic Determinants of Early Retirement: A Cross-Sectional View of White Married Men," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 12(3), pages 329-346.
    5. Fuller, Wayne A. & Battese, George E., 1974. "Estimation of linear models with crossed-error structure," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 67-78, May.
    6. Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Daniel E. Smith, 1983. "Introduction to "Pensions in the American Economy"," NBER Chapters, in: Pensions in the American Economy, pages 1-19, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Cain, Glen G & Dooley, Martin D, 1976. "Estimation of a Model of Labor Supply, Fertility, and Wages of Married Women," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(4), pages 179-199, August.
    8. Leimer, Dean R & Lesnoy, Selig D, 1982. "Social Security and Private Saving: New Time-Series Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(3), pages 606-629, June.
    9. Richard V. Burkhauser, 1980. "The Early Acceptance of Social Security: An Asset Maximization Approach," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 33(4), pages 484-492, July.
    10. Greenlees, John S & Zieschang, Kimberly D, 1984. "Grouping Tests for Misspecification: An Application to Housing Demand," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 2(2), pages 159-169, April.
    11. Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Daniel E. Smith, 1983. "Pensions in the American Economy," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number kotl83-1.
    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. C Machado & Miguel Portela, 2014. "Hours of work and retirement behaviour," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-22, December.
    2. Mary Daly & Richard V. Burkhauser, 2003. "The Supplemental Security Income Program," NBER Chapters, in: Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States, pages 79-140, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Dale S. Bremmer & Randy Kesselring, 2018. "How Social Security’s Earning Test, Age and Education Affect Female Labor Supply," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 46(4), pages 357-377, December.

    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. Olivia S. Mitchell & Gary S. Fields, 1985. "Rewards for Continued Work: The Economic Incentives for Postponing Retirement," NBER Chapters, in: Horizontal Equity, Uncertainty, and Economic Well-Being, pages 269-292, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. John Bound, 1989. "Self-Reported vs. Objective Measures of Health in Retirement Models," NBER Working Papers 2997, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. repec:eee:labchp:v:1:y:1986:i:c:p:305-355 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Randall K. Filer & Marjorie Honig, 2005. "Endogenous Pensions and Retirement Behavior," Economics Working Paper Archive at Hunter College 410, Hunter College Department of Economics.
    5. Laurence J. Kotlikoff & David A. Wise, 1988. "Pension Backloading, Wage Taxes, and Work Disincentives," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy: Volume 2, pages 161-196, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Hubbard, R. Glenn & Skinner, Jonathan & Zeldes, Stephen P., 1994. "The importance of precautionary motives in explaining individual and aggregate saving," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 59-125, June.
    7. Stock, James H & Wise, David A, 1990. "Pensions, the Option Value of Work, and Retirement," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(5), pages 1151-1180, September.
    8. R. Glenn Hubbard, 1987. "Uncertain Lifetimes, Pensions, and Individual Saving," NBER Chapters, in: Issues in Pension Economics, pages 175-210, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Clark, Robert L. & Hammond, Robert G. & Vanderweide, David, 2019. "Navigating complex financial decisions at retirement: evidence from annuity choices in public sector pensions," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 594-611, October.
    10. BOLDRIN, Michele & RUSTICHINI, Aldo, 1994. "Equilibria with Social Security," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 1994060, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    11. Martin Feldstein & Randall Morck, 1983. "Pension Funding Decisions, Interest Rate Assumptions, and Share Prices," NBER Chapters, in: Financial Aspects of the United States Pension System, pages 177-210, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Maria Goranova & Lori Verstegen Ryan, 2022. "The Corporate Objective Revisited: The Shareholder Perspective," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(2), pages 526-554, March.
    13. Johnson, Richard W, 1996. "The Impact of Human Capital Investments on Pension Benefits," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(3), pages 520-554, July.
    14. Robert Clark & Melinda Morrill, 2013. "Increasing Work Life: The Role Of The Employer," Discussion Papers 13-016, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    15. Emily S. Andrews, 1987. "Changing Pension Policy And The Aging Of America," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 5(2), pages 84-97, April.
    16. John P. Rust, 1989. "A Dynamic Programming Model of Retirement Behavior," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Aging, pages 359-404, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Olivia S. Mitchell & Gary S. Fields, 1981. "The Effects of Pensions and Earnings on Retirement: A Review Essay," NBER Working Papers 0772, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Herman B. Leonard, 1987. "Investing in the Defense Work Force: The Debt and Structure of Military Pensions," NBER Chapters, in: Public Sector Payrolls, pages 47-78, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Jeffrey Burr, 1995. "Metropolitan social structure, labor markets, and fertility," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 339-365, March.
    20. Douglas K. Pearce & V. Vance Roley, 1987. "Firm Characteristics, Unanticipated Inflation, and Stock Returns," NBER Working Papers 2366, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Robin L. Lumsdaine & David A. Wise, 1994. "Aging and Labor Force Participation: A Review of Trends and Explanations," NBER Chapters, in: Aging in the United States and Japan: Economic Trends, pages 7-42, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    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:ilrrev:v:37:y:1984:i:3:p:416-430. 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: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu .

    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.