Older women public sector workers in Ireland: Decisions about retirement timing

Older women workers’ decision making around retirement is increasingly important given the increasing involvement of older women in paid employment. This article explores influences on the retirement decision making of older women workers in Ireland. It is based on a case study of 57 interviews with women in the Irish civil service exploring work-life decision making. It finds that retirement choices vary according to initial socioeconomic resources and/or life-course trajectories and are particularly affected by gendered caring norms, employment policy, job tenure, and place in organizational hierarchies. Those women with interrupted careers and low pay have fewer choices around retirement timing.     

On a loss of room: an autoethnographic assay of fact 1

This paper was inspired by the circumstances around the withdrawal of my workspace five years after retirement. It is written from an autoenthographic perspective, and this small account leads to questions about the relationship between space and self – the physicality of reality and what constitutes the fact so created. That these questions are asked via the fiction of the autobiographical is also explored, as is the nature of autoethnography.     

中外被退休案例中的平等诉求

针对退休年龄的改革目标缺失性别公平问题,通过剖析四起中外被退休案中的性别歧视及其原告的平等诉求,以证明性别公平在此项改革目标中应列首位。退休年龄制度中的性别差异对女性、男性均可构成直接或间接的制度性就业性别歧视,而学术界和决策层尚有人对此缺乏性别意识和性别歧视敏感度,因此需要建立专门机构对法律进行性别影响评估,并界定就业性别歧视的概念以确定甄别标准。建议决策者用“若非因性别会得到与异性相同的对待”准则检测退休年龄制度中是否存在性别歧视条款。以避免改革方案沿袭歧视性规定而招致来自国内外的批评。     

Asset‐based policy in rural China: an innovation in the retirement social insurance programme1

In response to growing rural–urban inequality, China is undertaking a series of policy initiatives to promote rural development. In addition to redistributive policy aiming at social protection, asset‐based policy, which integrates social protection and social investment, are a viable option for progressive rural development. In 1998, the Hutubi local government in Xinjiang, China, implemented an innovative retirement programme that allows account holders to use accounts as legal collateral to borrow small loans and invest in productive assets, education, and small businesses. Using the data gathered by the programme organizers and in‐depth interviews with programme participants, this case study closely examines the Hutubi programme. We examine the programme's key features, which have effectively encouraged asset building in a rural community, and identify the programme's strengths and weaknesses. The success of the Hutubi programme has implications for asset‐based policy development in rural China.

为了回应城乡日益扩大的不平等, 中国现正实施一系列新政策以鼓励农村发展。 除了以社会保护为目的的再分配政策外, 资产为本的政策综合了社会保护和社会投资, 是推进农村进步性发展的可行选择。 1998年, 中国新疆呼图壁地区政府实施了崭新的养老计划, 容许户口持有人利用保险户口作为法律担保, 借出小额贷款及投资在具有效益的资产、教育及小型企业上。

透过项目组织者所收集的数据, 以及与参与者进行的深入访谈, 本研究个案将详细剖析呼图壁项目。 我们检视了项目的主要特征, 这些特征有效地促成了农村社区资产的建立。 我们还分析了项目的优缺点。 呼图壁项目的成功对中国农村实行资产为本的政策发展有着深远的启示。     

Exploring the Relationship Between Employment History and Retired Women's Social Relationships

This study explores the relationship between retired women's employment history and their social integration and social support networks in retirement. Employment history is defined by former occupation (professional, paraprofessional, nonprofessional) and job continuity (discontinuous and continuous). The sample consists of 330 retired women ranging in age from 50 to 83 years, with diverse occupational histories, who were retired an average of 3.5 years. Results indicate occupational status may influence women's social integration, part-time employment, caregiving tasks, and satisfaction with social support. Continuity of employment appears to only marginally influence social integration with no impact on social support or satisfaction with social support.     

The Future of Financing for Long-Term Care: The Own Your Future Campaign

The purpose of this study was to examine the outreach effort and impact of a joint federal-state campaign, Own Your Future, promoting awareness and planning for long-term care (LTC) in the state of Washington. The study applied survey methodology to evaluate the extent of campaign dissemination, evidence of its impact on LTC planning behaviors, and barriers to purchasing private LTC insurance. A total of 3,198 survey responses from a randomly selected community sample and a Washington State employee sample (ages 51 to 71) were analyzed. Results indicated that the impact of the campaign was limited, both with respect to awareness of the campaign itself and to initiation of LTC planning behaviors. Quantitative data revealed a high prevalence of health-related problems (e.g., obesity, diabetes), inadequate knowledge of basic LTC-related information (e.g., cost, payers), and negative attitudes toward purchasing LTC insurance among respondents. Qualitative analyses suggested that respondents perceived significant problems related to affordability and accountability within the current LTC insurance industry. These possible barriers to the purchase of LTC insurance suggest targets to be addressed by policy makers seeking to find ways to offset the public costs of LTC.     

What the 2008 Stock Market Crash Means for Retirement Security

The 2008 stock market crash raises concerns about retirement security, especially since the increased prevalence of 401(k) and similar retirement saving plans means that more Americans are now stakeholders in the equity market than in the past. Using a dynamic microsimulation model, this paper explores the ability of alternate future stock market scenarios to restore retirement assets. The authors find that those near retirement could fare the worst because they have no time to recoup their losses. Mid-career workers could fare better because they have more time to rebuild their wealth. They may even gain income if they buy stocks at low prices and get above-average rates of return. High-income groups will be the most affected because they are most likely to have financial assets and to be invested in the stock market.     

Social and Psychological Barriers to Private Retirement Savings in Hong Kong

Using a phone survey conducted among Hong Kong workers, we examined the association of institutional, social, and psychological factors with engagement in both private retirement savings and the total amount of savings. Alarmingly, this study demonstrates that approximately 42% of Hong Kong workers do not save privately for their retirement. We found that age, education, number of children, support from spouse and friends, social regulation, perceived financial knowledge, and financial management capacity are associated with engagement in private retirement savings. Among those who saved, age, education, perceived financial knowledge, and financial management capacity are related to the amount of savings. Measures that could increase the social support for retirement savings as well as enhance their financial knowledge and management ability should be developed and implemented so that more workers engage in private retirement savings. A promising policy option for the Hong Kong government is to offer a tax incentive to promote additional savings for old-age income protection.     

Extending Private Pension Coverage in a Middle-Income Country

Abstract

Government policies can play an important role in the development of private pensions. These policies can be divided into three groups: (1) policies that are essential to providing a favorable economic environment for pensions; (2) policies that encourage the development of private pensions, given that a favorable economic environment for them exists; and (3) policies that deal with weaknesses of private pension systems. While the policies discussed are generally applicable for middle-income countries, the economic and legal environments for pensions differ across countries. This article focuses in particular on the situation in Brazil.     

Dropping Out of High School: The Effects of Family Structure and Family Transitions

We use the 1988, 1990, and 1992 waves of data from the National Education Longitudinal Study to examine the effects of family structure and family transitions on adolescent high school dropout. Our study differs from previous studies by using a large longitudinal sample (N?=?21,420) and applying event history analysis with standard errors corrected for clustered sampling. Our study has two major contributions. First, we examine single-mother, single-father, stepmother, and stepfather families separately. Controlling for socioeconomic status, children from single-mother families are doing better than children from single-father and stepparent families. Second, using event history we can determine the causal order between family transitions and high school dropout rates. We find high school students are not hurt by their parents marrying, remarrying, or starting a cohabiting relationship, but are negatively affected by a parental divorce or separation during the high school years.