Point of No Return: How Do Financial Resources Affect the Timing of Retirement After a Job Separation?

Abstract

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Working Life Expectancy at Age 50 in the United States and the Impact of the Great Recession

“…This result is unexpected, given that the lesser-educated are generally considered to have been hit harder by the recession than the bettereducated (Engemann and Wall 2009), but may be due to the fact that these individuals have a higher probability of retiring if they become unemployed than other groups, possibly because they can more easily afford to leave the labor force (Rutledge 2015). Indeed, additional calculations show that the probability that a 50-year-old employed male would be retired at age 65 increased considerably for males with a college/ university degree: conditional on surviving, the probability was 27 % in 2003-2007 and 37 % in 2008-2011.…”

The Great Recession, Retirement and Related Outcomes

“…Our analysis does not focus on those who were older than the Social Security age of eligibility when the Great Recession began (e.g., see Rutledge, 2013). We are interested in isolating the effects of the Great Recession on those in their fifties who had not yet been subject to strong, immediate incentives from pensions or Social Security.…”