Spousal Influences on the Decision to Retire

Abstract:

Although it is widely recognized that retirement is a family affair affecting both the retiree and his or her spouse, most studies still treat retirement as an individual phenomenon. Research is focused primarily on individual factors and their impact on individuals’ retirement decisions. Data from the 1995 Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute Survey on Older Workers, in which 1,052 older workers and their spouses participated, show that the decision to retire is much less an individual decision than is generally assumed. Early retirement of one of the spouses is the result of influence processes within the household. This leads to the conclusion that retirement, to a certain extent, can be considered a household decision: social pressures by the partner do play an important role in the decision to retire early. This holds not only for dual-earner couples but also for non–dual-earner couples.