Retirement Timing in Germany

Abstract:

This article examines the timing of retirement in a household context, using longitudinal data on employment and family careers. It investigates the retirement decisions of unmarried and married elderly men and women. Since in (West) Germany, patterns of investment in alternative family and market roles over the life course are highly tendered, a separate analysis is also performed on a subsample of working spouses where both partners were employed at age fifty. The determinants of retirement decisions considered in the models are: early life course employment patterns, employment characteristics in later life, health situation, and household circumstances, including the income level. Data come from the German Socioeconomic Panel Study. An event history analysis is conducted using a piecewise constant hazard model with time-varying covariates. The analysis indicates that there are indeed important differences in retirement behavior between men and women as well as between unmarried and married individuals. The household context does matter in retirement decisions but the study discloses gender asymmetry in response to marital status and displays differences between partnerships in which both spouses are employed in late life and those that portray a traditional division of paid/unpaid labor.