Time for Retirement Comparative Studies of Early Exit from the Labor Force [Paperback]

In all Western countries, people are retiring earlier than ever before, and people are living longer, thus prolonging the length of retirement. What are the effects of this phenomenon on society in general and on the labor force, and what are the psychological effects on retirees? Time for Retirement addresses the aging of society and the restructuring of the life course in terms of the changing relationship between work and retirement. Practically, it assesses the range of possible political answers to this process, with a comparative analysis of different national regimes.1. The changing balance of work and retirement Martin Kohli and Martin Rein; 2. The evolution of early exit: a comparative analysis of labor force participation patterns Klaus Jacobs, Martin Kohli and Martin Rein; 3. Testing the industry-mix hypothesis of early exit Klaus Jacobs, Martin Kohli and Martin Rein; 4. The Netherlands: an extreme case Bert de Vroom and Martin Blomsma; 5. France: massive exit through unemployment compensation Anne-Marie Guillemard; 6. Germany: The diversity of pathways Klaus Jacobs, Martin Kohli and Martin Rein; 7. Great Britain: The contradictions of early exit Frank Laczko and Chris Phillipson; 8. The United States: The privatization of exit Harold L. Sheppard; 9. Sweden: partial exit Eskil Wadensj?; 10. Hungary: exit from the state economy Julia Szalai; 11. Pathways and their prospects: a comparative interpretation of the meaning of early exit Anne-Marie Guillemard and Herman van Gunsteren; Index. The trend to early retirement is a puzzle for social science and a problem for policy. It is also a natural for the kind of broad comparative analysis that this fascinating book exemplifies. It is full of striking facts and interesting ideas, each needing the other. Robert M. Solow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology The wealth of new information this brilliantly composed collaborative study offers may even be surpassed by the amount of explanatory and normativlÕ