Working Longer May Be Good Public Policy,But It Is Not Necessarily Good for Older People

Older people are facing a changed set of expectations regarding work and retirement. Until quite recently early retirement was being encouraged. Today's older workers, however, are contemplating longer working lives amid policy concerns about the costs of social welfare associated with an aging population. While working longer is, almost universally, being promoted as a social and individual good this article argues that this policy shift is unlikely to change the situation of many older workers who would have needed to continue working anyway. It also argues that the emphasis on prolonged employment undervalues engagement in activities beyond employment. As well, it argues that the emphasis on prolonging employment neglects to account for the attendant risks for many of continuing to work or having to seek work and the potential health- and well-being-enhancing effects of retirement.     

Single women and stock investment in individual retirement accounts

This study uses data from the 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances to investigate factors related to stock investment in individual retirement accounts and focuses on the role of gender and marital status in particular. This study finds that single women are less likely to own stocks and invest in fewer stocks in their IRAs. Personal characteristics, such as stock ownership in other financial assets, education level, and risk tolerance may play a key role in shaping individuals’ decisions regarding stock investment in IRAs. However, these determinants are different for single women than for other demographic groups.     

Working Hours Flexibility and Timing of Retirement: Findings from Europe

This study investigates how flexibility in working hours affects retirement timing. It tests the assumption that decreasing weekly working hours delays retirement and extends working life. Using data from four waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), we analyze whether a shift from full-time to part-time work delays retirement. Results show that older workers who reduce their working hours retire earlier than those who stay in full-time employment. The effect is stronger in Central and Eastern Europe than in Scandinavian countries. No interaction effects for gender and work strain are found. We conclude that part-time work at the end of the career, as a means to extend working life, should be reevaluated.     

Attitudes Toward Aging and Retirement Homes Before and After Entry Into a Retirement Home

The change of one's habitual living conditions in favor of institutionalized living in a retirement home can be a stressful event. Therefore, the question arises: How does entry into a retirement home affect attitudes toward one's life and aging and toward retirement homes? In order to answer this question, we used longitudinal data from 53 older individuals who were surveyed before and after entry into a retirement home. The data revealed that attitudes toward one's life and aging changed negatively and attitudes toward retirement homes changed positively; however, there are gains and losses in both attitudes.     

Crafting the expert-advocate: training and recruitment efforts in the carbon dioxide capture and storage community

This article presents a case study of recruitment efforts around carbon capture and storage (CCS) to explore how expert communities internalize the societal dimensions of envisioned pathways for energy transitions. Members of the CCS community see the technology’s realization as being dependent on traversing a range of “barriers”, such as public fears and resistance that exacerbate struggles for policy support. Community-supported training venues prime recruits for practical interventions that target these barriers. Events also uphold necessary interpretive flexibilities that support heterogeneous advocacy coalition with at times diverging interests in energy transitions. The concept of expert-advocates, experts primed for interventions across technical-social systems, is proposed as a new analytic aid for future studies of socially reflexive expert communities.     

我国应谨慎出台延迟退休政策

随着人口老龄化程度的加深,延迟退休年龄的话题近年来络绎不绝地出现在各大报章,同时在网络上引起热烈讨论,提高退休年龄似乎已势在必行。然而从我国现阶段的基本国情出发,延迟退休的政策应从长计议,谨慎出台。本文从延迟退休年龄与养老保险制度、老年人力资源利用、劳动力就业三方面的关系出发,论述了延长退休年龄应注意的几个问题,并提出对策建议。     

军人退役安置立法比较研究

退役军人安置问题逐渐成为日趋严重的社会问题,日益引起各国政府的广泛关注。世界各国根据本国国情相继立法律解决退役军人的安置问题。本文分别从退役金、就业安置、住房待遇、医疗待遇四个方面,对各国退役立法进行比较。并通过对各国的军人安置立法的比较,阐述其对我国军人退役安置的意义。     

Gender,justice and work: A distributive approach to perceptions of housework fairness

Most women and men report that the division of domestic labor in their household is fair, despite women undertaking approximately seventy percent of housework. This raises questions about how fairness is evaluated within partnerships. We explore how parenthood and relationship transitions affect perceptions of housework fairness using panel data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey and panel regression models. Our results indicate that net of actual housework divisions, socio-demographic factors, time availability and relative resources, the transition to parenthood increases women’s perceptions of housework fairness immediately following the birth of a child, but decreases them in the long run. Relationship transitions have no independent effects. Our findings suggest that parenthood transitions are associated with changes in women’s identity, cognitive evaluations of fairness and feelings of entitlement, as indicated by distributive justice theory.     

延迟退休对职工效用最大化的影响——基于“S”型效用函数的分析

"十四五"规划提出"实施渐进式延迟法定退休年龄",如何使延迟退休政策被大众广泛接受是我国养老保险制度改革的重点问题。基于个人效用最大化原理,结合我国现行养老保险制度和前景价值函数中的"S"型效用函数,构建关于工资收入、养老保险缴纳费用、养老金财富和闲暇时间的综合效用模型,从性别、闲暇偏好、工资收入水平、利率、参保年龄、养老金个人缴费率六个方面确定个人效用最大化的退休年龄,并结合我国当前国情,对延迟退休政策提出针对性的建议。研究结果表明:不同退休年龄下的个人效用函数是关于退休年龄的"先大幅上升,后缓慢下降"曲线。男性参保职工于63岁退休获得效用最大值,而女性参保职工于60岁退休获得效用最大值,且二者最优退休年龄并不会随工资收入水平的改变而改变,工资收入水平只会对参保职工获得的效用绝对值产生影响,工资收入水平越高,参保职工获得效用值越大。此外,若闲暇偏好越低、利率越低、参保年龄越大、养老保险个人缴费率越低,则参保职工的最优退休年龄就越大。总体而言,只有考虑性别因素、给予延迟退休政策适当的弹性操作空间、改进养老保险计发办法、创造更好的老年就业环境,才能使延迟退休政策更好地推行。     

Predicting End‐of‐Career Transitions for Baby Boomers Nearing Retirement Age

Retirement has traditionally been conceptualized as a point‐in‐time decision to physically and psychologically withdraw from the workforce on reaching a certain age. However, the expectations of older workers demonstrate a new retirement paradigm, with many more retirement trajectories. The purpose of this study was to examine actual career decisions being made by older workers and to understand sociodemographic factors that might differentiate their career trajectories. Data from the Health and Retirement Study (Juster & Suzman, 1995 ) were analyzed using multinomial logistic regression to compare 4 retirement trajectories (i.e., no retirement, full retirement, bridge employment, and encore career). Gender, age, education, marital status, health, and wealth differentially predicted the odds of pursuing each of the 4 retirement decisions. Career practitioners may use these results to help baby boomers make retirement decisions and provide them with appropriate education, guidance, and resources. Additional research is needed to examine other factors salient to each of the retirement trajectories.