Measuring the impact of health on work in a context of delayed retirement

The fact that health deteriorates with age should not prevent people from working well into their late 60s. Most people in their 50s and 60s are still sufficiently healthy, and many less-healthy people still manage to work despite experiencing poorer health. This finding is good news for policy makers who consider an increase in labor force participation rates among older people as an important tool for safeguarding the long-term solvency of pension schemes. Yet, the picture is not all rosy. Although physical health does not seem to form an important obstacle towards higher retirement ages, the same cannot be said with as much certainty concerning psychological health. Furthermore, there remain people who enter the latter phase of their career with poor or deteriorating health who have no choice but to stop working before the official retirement age and rely upon social benefits. Also, inequalities between socio-economic groups remain in the number of years that they are capable to work. These challenges will have to be tackled if societies commit to provide everyone with good work and retirement opportunities at older ages.

Dissertation: http://hdl.handle.net/11370/99e2619d-d0a5-40e7-8515-cff10254519e