Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:19:35.859Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Trends and Determinants of Work-Retirement Transitions under Changing Institutional Conditions: Germany, England and Japan compared

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2015

DIRK HOFÄCKER ,
HEIKE SCHRÖDER ,
YUXIN LI  and
MATTHEW FLYNN
DIRK HOFÄCKER
Affiliation:
University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute of Social Work and Social Policy, Berliner Platz 6—8 45127 Essen, Germany email: dirk.hofaecker@uni-due.de
HEIKE SCHRÖDER
Affiliation:
Queen's University Belfast, Queen's Management School, Riddel Hall, 185 Stranmillis Road, Belfast, BT9 5EE, United Kingdom email: h.s.schroder@gmail.com
YUXIN LI
Affiliation:
University of Warwick, Institute for Employment Research, Room B0.30, Coventry, CV4 7AL, United Kingdom email: yuxin.li@warwick.ac.uk
MATTHEW FLYNN
Affiliation:
Newcastle University Business School, Centre for Research into the Older Workforce (CROW), 5 Barrack Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4SE, United Kingdom email: matt.flynn@ncl.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Many governments world-wide are promoting longer working life due to the social and economic repercussions of demographic change. However, not all workers are equally able to extend their employment careers. Thus, while national policies raise the overall level of labour market participation, they might create new social and labour market inequalities. This paper explores how institutional differences in the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan affect individual retirement decisions on the aggregate level, and variations in individuals’ degree of choice within and across countries. We investigate which groups of workers are disproportionately at risk of being ‘pushed’ out of employment, and how such inequalities have changed over time. We use comparable national longitudinal survey datasets focusing on the older population in England, Germany and Japan. Results point to cross-national differences in retirement transitions. Retirement transitions in Germany have occurred at an earlier age than in England and Japan. In Japan, the incidence of involuntary retirement is the lowest, reflecting an institutional context prescribing that employers provide employment until pension age, while Germany and England display substantial proportions of involuntary exits triggered by organisational-level redundancies, persistent early retirement plans or individual ill-health.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , January 2016 , pp. 39 - 64
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abe, Y. (2011), “The Equal Employment Opportunity Law and labor force behavior of women in Japan”, Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, 25:1,39–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Banks, J., Blundell, R., Bozio, A. and Emmerson, C. (2008), Releasing jobs for the young? Early retirement and youth unemployment in the United Kingdom, IFS Working Paper 10/02. London: IFS.Google Scholar
Bennett, J. and Möhring, K. (2015), “Cumulative (Dis)advantage? The Impact of Labour Market Policies on Late Career Employment from a Life Course Perspective”, Journal of Social Policy, 44:2,213–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blöndal, S. and Scarpetta, S. (1999), “The retirement decision in OECD countries”, OECD Economics Department Working Paper. Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Blossfeld, H.-P., Buchholz, S. and Hofäcker, D. (Eds) (2006), Globalization, Uncertainty and Late Careers in Society. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blossfeld, H.-P., Buchholz, S. and Kurz, K. (Eds) (2011), Ageing Populations, Globalization and the Labor Market: Comparing Late Working Life and Retirement in Modern Societies. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casey, B. (2005), “The employment of older people: Can we learn from Japan?”, Geneva Papers on Risk: Issues and Practice, 30,620–637.Google Scholar
Christensen, K., Doblhammer, G., Rau, R. and Vaupel, J. (2009), “Ageing populations: The challenges ahead”. The Lancet, 374,1196–1208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DePreter, H., Van Looy, D. and Mortelmans, D. (2013), “Individual and institutional push and pull factors as predictors of retirement timing in Europe: A multilevel analysis”, Journal of Aging Studies, 27 (4): 299–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorn, D. and Sousa-Poza, A. (2010), “‘Voluntary’ and ‘involuntary’ early retirement: An international analysis”, Applied Economics, 42:4,427–438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ebbinghaus, B. (2006), Reforming Early Retirement in Europe, Japan and the USA. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ebbinghaus, B. and Hofäcker, D. (2013), Reversing early retirement in advanced welfare economies: A paradigm shift to overcome push and pull factors. Comparative Population Studies, 38 (4): 807–840.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
EUROFOUND (2012), Impact of the Recession on Age Management Policies. Dublin: Eurofound.Google Scholar
Fasang, A. (2010), Retirement: Institutional pathways and individual trajectories in Britain and Germany. Sociological Research Online, 15 (2): 1.Google Scholar
Flynn, M. (2010), The United Kingdom government's “business case” approach to the regulation of retirement. Ageing & Society, 30 (03): 421–443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flynn, M., Schröder, H., Higo, M. and Yamada, A. (2014), Government as institutional entrepreneur: Extending working life in the UK and Japan. Journal of Social Policy, 43 (3): 535–553.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Flynn, M., Upchurch, M., Müller-Camen, M. and Schröder, H. (2013), Trade union responses to ageing workforces in the UK and Germany. Human Relations, 66 (1): 45–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, P.A. and Soskice, D. (2001), Varieties of Capitalism: The Foundation of Comparative Advantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirsch, D. (2003), Crossroads after 50: Improving choices in work and retirement. Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Hofäcker, D. (2010), Older workers under Globalization: An international comparison of retirement and late-career patterns among older workers in Western industrialized countries, Cheltenham/Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hofäcker, D. and Naumann, E. (2015), The emerging trend of work beyond retirement age in Germany; Zeitschrift für Gerontologie und Geriatrie, 48 (5): 473–479.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ichimura, H. and Shimizutani, S. (2012), “Retirement Process in Japan: New Evidence from Japanese Study on Aging and Retirement (JSTAR)”. In Smith, J.P. and Majmundar, M. (Eds.), Aging in Asia: Findings from New and Emerging Data Initiatives (pp.173–206). Washington: National Academy Press.Google Scholar
Koenen, F., Reichert, T. and Zapf, I. (2009), “Freiwillige und unfreiwillige Frühverrentung in Deutschland”. In Engelhardt, H. (Ed.), Altern in Europa (pp.57–91). Bamberg: University of Bamberg Press.Google Scholar
Kohli, M. and Rein, M. (1991), The changing balance of work and retirement. In: Kohli, M., Rein, M., Guillemard, A.-M. and van Gusteren, H. (Eds.) Time for retirement: Comparative studies of early exit from the labor force. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lain, D. (2012), “Working past 65 in the UK and the USA: segregation into Lopaq occupations?”. Work, Employment & Society, 26,78–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leisering, L. (2003), “Government and the Life Course“. In Mortimer, J.T. and Shanahan, M.J. (Eds.), Handbook of the Life Course (pp.205–225). New York: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maitland, A. (2010), Working Better: The over 50s, the new work generation. Manchester: Equality and Human Rights Commission.Google Scholar
McNair, S. (2010), Learning and Work in Later Life. London: Nuffield Foundation.Google Scholar
McNair, S., Flynn, M., Owen, L., Humphreys, C. and Woodfield, S. (2004), Changing Work in Later Life: A Study of Job Transitions. Guildford: University of Surrey.Google Scholar
Mood, C. (2010), “Logistic regression: Why we cannot do what we think we can do, and what we can do about it”, European Sociological Review, 26,67–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Müller-Camen, M., Croucher, R., Flynn, M. and Schröder, H. (2011), National institutions and employers’ age management practices in Britain and Germany: ‘Path dependence’ and option exploration. Human Relations, 64 (4): 507–530.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
OECD (1999), Training of adult workers in OECD countries. OECD Employment Outlook, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
OECD (2005), Ageing and Employment Policies, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
OECD (2011), Pensions at a Glance 2011, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
OECD (2013), Scoreboard on Older Workers, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
OECD (2014), OECD Stat Extracts, Retrieved on 20 May 2014 from http://stats.oecd.org/.Google Scholar
Oka, M. (2013), “Older workers in Japan: the present situation and the future challenges”. In Taylor, P. (Ed.), Older Workers in an Ageing Society: (pp.62–68). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Phillipson, C. (2013), “Reconstructing Work and Retirement: Labour Market Trends and Policy Issues”. In: Field, J., Burke, R. and Cooper, C. (Eds.) The SAGE Handbook of Aging, Work and Society. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Quine, S., Wells, Y., De Vaus, D. and Kendig, H. (2007), “When choice in retirement decisions is missing: Qualitative and quantitative findings of impact on well-being”, Australasian Journal on Ageing, 26,4:173–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reeuwijk, K., de Wind, A., Westerman, M., Ybema, J. F., van der Beek, A. and Geuskens, G. (2013), “All those things together made me retire’: qualitative study on early retirement among Dutch employees”. BMC Public Health, 13,1:516–527.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schröder, H., Hofäcker, D. and Müller-Camen, M. (2009), HRM and the employment of older workers: Germany and Britain compared. International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 9 (2–3): 162–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schröder, H., Müller-Camen, M. and Flynn, M. (2014), The management of an ageing workforce: organisational policies in Germany and Britain. Human Resource Management Journal, 24 (4): 394–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seike, A. and Yamada, A. (2004), Kōreisha shūrou no Keizaigaku, Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha.Google Scholar
Shimizutani, H. (2011), “A new anatomy of the retirement process in Japan”, Japan and the World Economy, 23,3:141–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trampusch, C. (2003), “Institutional resettlement: The case of early retirement in Germany”. In Streeck, W., and Thelen, K. (Eds.), Beyond Continuity: Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies (pp.203–227). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
van Berkel, R., Borghi, V., Carmel, E., Hamblin, K. and Papadopoulos, T. (2007), “Governing the activation of older workers in the European Union”. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 27,387–400.Google Scholar
Walker, A. (1980), “The social creation of poverty and dependency in old age”. Journal of Social Policy, 9,01:49–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, A. (1985), “Early retirement: Release or refuge from the labour market”. The Quarterly Journal of Social Affairs, 1,3:211–229.Google Scholar
Walker, A. (1998), “Age and employment”. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 17: 99–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, A. (2002), “A strategy for active ageing”, International Social Security Review, 55:121–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, A. (2005), “The emergence of age management in Europe”. International Journal of Organisational Behaviour, 10,1:685–697.Google Scholar
Walker, A. and DLitt, (2000), Public policy and the construction of old age in Europe. The Gerontologist, 40,3:304–308.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weyman, A. and Buckingham, A. (2013), Extending Working Life: Audit of Research Relating to the Impact on NHS Employees. Leeds: NHS.Google Scholar
Williamson, J. B. and Higo, M. (2009), Why Japanese workers remain in the labor force so long: Lessons for the United States? Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 24 (4): 321–337.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wood, G., Wilkinson, G. and Harcourt, M. (2008), “Age discrimination and working life: Perspectives and contestations”. International Journal of Management Reviews, 10, 425–442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yamada, A. and Higo, M. (2011), Institutional barriers to work beyond retirement in an aging Japan: Evidence from a recent employee survey”. Contemporary Japan, 23,157–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar