Does Age-Related Decline in Ability Correspond with Retirement Age?

Abstract

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A Comparison of Subjective and Objective Job Demands and Fit With Personal Resources as Predictors of Retirement Timing in a National U.S. Sample

“…This finding is very consistent with research showing a strong impact on retirement of physically demanding work (Modrek, & Cullen, 2012) and physical limitations (Belbase et al, 2015), but is one of the first studies to specifically examine the interaction effect.…”

“…Interestingly, jobs that have more cognitive demands tend to be associated with white-collar work and could therefore be associated with much later retirement if demands do not exceed resources (Fisher et al, 2014). Although workers’ personal resources can certainly be more broadly construed (Hobfoll, 2002), physical, emotional, and cognitive functioning are all important resources that may help workers with meeting their job demands and, in turn, their ability to stay on the job to older ages (Belbase, Sazenbacher, & Gillis, 2015; Jex, Wang, & Zarubin, 2007). …”

“…Following Belbase et al (2015), in the physical domain, we proposed that mobility limitations would be likely to increase with age and have broad impact across occupations. We selected this aspect of physical functioning to reflect, not so much optimal functioning, but rather the minimum that would be required for most workers to be able to stay on the job.…”

Baby boomers in the United States: Factors associated with working longer and delaying retirement

“…In particular, construction workers in a number of countries have been found to stop working at an earlier age than other workers [Brenner and Ahern, ; Liira et al, ; Capanni et al, ; Welch, ; Järvholm et al, ]. In a recent study, Belbase et al [] demonstrated that blue‐collar workers were especially susceptible to early declines in ability that inhibit their ability to work to the full retirement age under the current Social Security policy.…”

Latent Work Capacity and Retirement Expectations

“…(2017) study the effect of mismatches between actual abilities and job demands on retirement expectations focusing, by necessity, on a limited number of dimensions, rather than a comprehensive assessment of mismatches between multiple job demands and actual level of abilities. Using the same data sources, Belbase et al (2015) construct a susceptibility index, which captures how likely the abilities required for an occupation are to decline with age for all occupations in the economy. By relating the index to retirement behaviors, they find that workers in occupations that rely more on abilities with faster age-decline tend to retire earlier.…”