Labour force participation and productivity at older ages

An analysis of Argentine and Brazilian old-age occupied people is proposed on the basis of the household surveys from 2011. For that purpose, the process of demographic ageing in both countries will be described. Some concepts related to the labour participation of old-age adults in Latin America and in the two countries subject of study will be reviewed afterwards. The focus will also be put on the relationship between the level of social security coverage and the old-age labour participation, to characterize immediately after the occupied old-age adults living in both countries.
The structure of employment of old-age adults in Argentina was clearly polarized. People with a lower education level were engaged in occupations such as construction, domestic service, care and attention of persons, industrial and handicraft production, repair and surveillance activities. On the other hand, workers with a higher education level, were engaged in occupations such as education, health, small and middle companies, administration, planning and commercialization. In Brazil, a higher concentration can be observed in less qualified occupations, and a predominance of service workers, textile industry, graphic industry, agriculture and cattle raising, sales and trade workers.

In developing countries where social security systems are not well established, the elderly have to find alternate ways in which to finance their retirement. Common retirement age in Indonesia is at 55 years old. Due to the absence of their formal support system, a lot of elderly work again, mostly in informal sectors. Familial transfers can also be an alternate ways to support their consumption. In addition to familial transfers, wealth and savings play an important role in supporting the elderly.
From the Indonesia National Transfers Account, it shows that assets play an important role in financing the elderly consumption, which covers almost 50 percent of their consumption. However, there is also a tendency that informal works support a lot of elderly during their post-retirement. Accumulated asset at the retirement age can be an important initial capital for the elderly to create an informal sector and keep working to continuously support their consumption.

Given the recent fast changes in population age structure in Brazil and Argentina, translated in aging populations, increasing longevity with improving quality of life of the elderly and considering the maintenance of the levels of their labor force participation rates, our goal is to discuss trends and some consequences of the growth in the share of elderly in the labor supply in these countries. We analyze the differences in the patterns of participation of the elderly population considering gender, age and education. We also address the labour participation patterns in terms of types of occupations, trying to identify niches that enable continued employment, in contexts of high unemployment, job insecurity, technological changes and improvements in the education of younger workers.
This paper proposes to address the problem of occupational segregation of Argentine and Brazilian men and women aged 60 and over who remained in the labor force using household surveys data for 2011 in both countries . The estimation of the level of occupational segregation will take place from the overall association index under a saturated log-linear model and using the square root segregation index proposed by Hutchens (2004).

The paper explores the value of older persons and assesses the extent to which they make contributions to development in Uganda. The key indicators of value considered are current engagement in income-generating activities, possession of basic ethno-science knowledge and advice on conduct and behaviour.

Logistic regression model shows age, sex, education, country region and role played in social organisations influence engagement in income-generating activities. Possession of basic ethno-science knowledge is influenced by country region in which older persons live. Advice on conduct and behaviour is influenced by age, place of residence, country region, education and role played in social organisations.

The conclusion is that older persons play vital roles and possess valuable ethno-science knowledge which can be harnessed towards contributing to national development. It is recommended that institutionalisation of a non-contributory pension arrangement in Uganda be put in place for a more sustainable process of active aging. A national framework for recognising, profiling and documenting the value of older persons is further recommended as a strategy for improving the quality of old age-specific information in the country.

This paper examines the impact of the 1994 pension reform in Sweden on the old worker’s transition into retirement measured by the rate of increase in leisure over age 60-65. The analysis is based on the longitudinal data constructed by linking individuals from Swedish Income Register 1970-2010 and Population and Housing Census. The empirical model is derived from neoclassical lifecycle model, and stresses on the effects of asset income and expectation of future wage and pension benefits on the retirement transition. In addition, the gender and educational differences are examined.

Europe is affected by an important ageing of its population, which will gain strength in upcoming decades and will also result in an “internal” ageing of the labour force. This massive structural change raises some questions about senior's emotional well-being at work and there is a growing literature on this matter. However, some studies focused only on senior workers and do not take into account the possibility that age or ageing can have a protective effect on some psychosocial risk factors or that those risks could have an age-related stability.
This study proposes to examine the effect of age on work related psychosocial risk exposure and on their outcome. The results show a clear protective effect of old age on most of the work related psychosocial risk factors and outcomes considered in this study. For most of these variables, that effect is nonlinear. Based on the life-span theory of socioemotional selectivity (completed with a collective component), the study also propose a theoretical frame which explains the nonlinear effect of age.

With a marked ageing of its population, Europe will not only experience a decrease in the dependency ratio of workers to pensioners (which should be approximately divided by two by 2045) but also the “internal” ageing of its labour force. Face to that massive ageing, a generalised later retirement policy agenda, recommending longer active lives (linked to the increases in life expectancy) and restricting the access to early retirement or disability schemes, was adopted by Brussels (European Commission, White Paper 2012). Already implemented in some countries, measures recommended by this policy seek to increase the labour force participation of old age workers in European countries.
Based on Labour Force Surveys of 2006-2010 period, the aim of this study is to analyse, at a regional level, the role of health status on seniors (50 to 69 years old) labour force participation in Europe. This analysis focuses on the inactivity declared to be caused by illness or disability. Most of the interest of the analysis is ported on the differentiation of this state by sex, age, level of education (Isced) and population density, but mostly on its geographical variation, at national and regional levels.

Using data from different rounds of employment and unemployment surveys (EUS) of National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), we examine the labour force participation rate (LFPR) of older persons in India from 1983 to 2009-10 and analyse how different socio-economic and demographic factors are associated with labour force participation decision making at older age in India. The paper also reviews the conditions of work for the elderly in India. The results show that LFPR of older persons in rural India remained almost stable between 1983 and 2009-10, despite the rapid economic growth that India experienced in the same period. Further, the results show that among the elderly those who belong to relatively poor socio-economic status are more likely to participate in the labour force. Also it is observed that large percentage of the elderly workforce are engaged in poorly paid jobs in the informal sector, either as casual workers or as self-employed in low skilled or unskilled occupations. This suggests that given the inadequate social security for the majority of the older persons and the declining traditional support from adult children with the growth of nuclear families, continuing to work can be the only option for old age support for the majority in India.

Abstract This paper documents “sharp retirement”—retirement accompanied by a discontinuous decline in labor supply—across three data sets, which previous literature found difficult to explain. I propose and estimate a life-cycle labor supply model with habit persistence wherein sharp retirement can be explained by workers quitting “cold turkey.” In much the same way that one might quit smoking, workers with accumulated “working habit” exit the labor force with a pronounced, discontinuous decline in labor supply. The working habit model is consistent with the data, where workers reduce yearly labor supply by scaling back more in hours worked per week (over 50% reduction) than in weeks worked per year (20% reduction). The fixed costs approach, which has been the standard model used to understand sharp retirement, cannot explain these trends. After estimating the model, counterfactuals show that reducing Social Security benefits by 20% causes individuals work an additional 8.6 months. Individuals choosing sharp retirement respond mostly on the extensive margin by delaying retirement eight months, while individuals choosing smooth retirement respond mostly on the intensive margin by increasing yearly labor supply and delaying retirement only one month.

The paper tries to understand the dynamics of health of the elderly and their labour force participation in India. The data from the National Sample Survey, 60th round is used. The health of the elderly is assessed through the information on disease pattern, disability and information of treatment seeking behavior and hospitalization. Bi-variate and multi-variate analysis are employed to understand the nexus between health status and work force participation of elderly in India. A regional level analysis will also be carried out to the phenomenon in detail. The study shows that nearly one-third of elderly is in labour force (LF), LF participation is higher among the rural, male and STs. Economic status is inversely related to the LF participation. A higher LF participation is seen in the North-Eastern region followed by central region. The health status of elderly shows a higher prevalence of morbidity, poor perception of their own health and a higher disability among them. Elderly who did not report illness during the last 15 days reported higher LF participation, similarly those who had a better self perceived health were higher in the LF and disability was also found to be a major constraint in participating in the LF.