Increases in wellbeing in the transition to retirement for the unemployed: catching up with formerly employed persons

This paper examines the extent to which wellbeing levels change in the transition to retirement depending on transitioning from being employed, unemployed or economically inactive. Whereas transitioning from employment to unemployment has been found to cause a decrease in subjective wellbeing with more time spent in unemployment, it is not clear how transitioning from unemployment to retirement affects wellbeing levels. We use the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe to monitor the life satisfaction of respondents who retire in between two waves. We portray wellbeing scores before and after retirement and then identify the change in life satisfaction during the retirement transition using a First Difference model. Results indicate that being unemployed before retirement is associated with an increase in life satisfaction, but presents mainly a catching-up effect compared to employed persons transitioning to retirement. These results are still significant if we control for selection into unemployment and country differences. Retirement from labour market inactivity does not lead to significant changes in wellbeing. As the wellbeing of unemployed persons recovers after transitioning to retirement, especially the currently unemployed population should be supported to prevent detrimental consequences of economically unfavourable conditions and lower wellbeing

Gendered life courses and cognitive functioning in later life: the role of context-specific gender norms and lifetime employment

With increasing life expectancy, dementia poses an epidemiological challenge. As a cure has not been developed, the investigation into preventive factors becomes pivotal. Previous research emphasizes the cognitively stimulating and socio-emotional benefits of lifetime employment, but research on heterogeneous patterns across social groups and societal contexts remains sparse. Sociological approaches have a promising potential to provide insights into health inequalities and can contribute to the study of this major societal challenge. We investigate the influence of previous employment biographies on cognitive functioning for men and women aged 50 to 75 in 19 European countries, using longitudinal and retrospective information from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. We link individual information on employment biographies and cognitive functioning to contextual measures of gender norms, using aggregated agreement rates to both men's and women's role in employment and family. We find that previous employment affects cognitive functioning men and women differently. Part-time employment is beneficial for women's cognitive functioning, but not for men's. Traditional gender norms are associated with lower levels of cognitive functioning for both genders and moderate the linkage between previous employment and cognitive functioning. In contexts with more traditional gender norms, men's part-time employment is associated with lower and women's part-time employment with higher cognitive functioning. We conclude that employment and non-employment participation can, depending on characteristics of individuals and contexts, benefit or hinder the life-course accumulation of cognitive reserve, and those with norm-deviating behaviour are disadvantaged