Timing of Retirement and Transition of Paid Employment in Relation to Family Obligations

Paula M. Kazi, Michigan State University

The potential impact of familial responsibilities is extremely relevant for retirement research. Retirement is an important outcome particularly if it excludes the retiree from the health insurance benefits when it perhaps is most expensive. Also, the convex profile in the pension scheme could mean that retirement costs due to leaving the work force when the pension accrues most rapidly could be sizeable. Additionally, wage and hours often are offered as a bundle and so concentrating solely on hours of work perhaps is not the best representation of the costs associated with withdrawal from the labor market in one form or another. Family obligations of both pecuniary and non-pecuniary nature might arise from a variety of sources. Longer life expectancy and earlier retirement provisions imply that retirement-age individuals would need to contemplate about those possible responsibilities in conjunction with the retirement decision.