Redefining the Process of Retirement

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XI

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2. I

   1. Retirement at the Cross-Roads

      • W. Schmähl

      Pages 1-12

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3. II

   1. The Process of Retirement in Germany: Trends, Public Discussion and Options for its Redefinition

      • K. Jacobs, W. Schmähl

      Pages 13-38

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4. III

   1. Early Retirement in Sweden

      • A. Kruse, L. Söderström

      Pages 39-61

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   2. The Process of Retirement in Denmark: Trends, Public Discussion and Institutional Framework

      • J. H. Petersen

      Pages 63-81

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   3. The Flexible Pensionable Age in Finland

      • H. Sundberg

      Pages 83-89

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5. IV

   1. American Patterns of Work and Retirement

      • R. V. Burkhauser, J. F. Quinn

      Pages 91-113

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   2. The Retirement Process in the United States: Mobility Among Full-Time Work, Partial Retirement, and Full Retirement

      • C. Reimers, M. Honig

      Pages 115-131

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6. V

   1. Early Retirement: The Problems of “Instrument Substitution” and “Cost Shifting” and Their Implications for Restructuring the Process of Retirement

      • B. Casey

      Pages 133-150

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7. VI

   1. Seniority-Based Wage System and Postponed Retirement

      • L. Bellmann

      Pages 151-162

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   2. Employment of Older Persons from a Management Point of View

      • W. H. Staehle

      Pages 163-173

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8. Back Matter

   Pages 175-180

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Past and future development as well as possibilities for influencing the process of retirement are discussed, in particular effects on the labour market (supply and demand, behaviour of workers and firms, concerning human resource management and occupational pensions), financing of social security and income of workers. Decisions concerning earlier or postponed, full or partial retirement are the main topic stressing the central role of firms' decisions depending e.g. on their view of the productivity of the elderly. Reports on Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Denmark, Finland) in particular on their approach for partial retirement are included as well as papers discussing possibilities to stop the trend of early exit from the labour force and how to give incentives for a longer working life (e.g. by changes in social security). These topics are discussed in the view of structural changes in demography, economy and society, using - among other - the US and West Germany as examples. The papers point out the necessity to look at retirement as a process (in a life cycle perspective, requiring longitudinal data for empirical research) and in a perspective integrating the different aspects involved.

• demography
• labor market
• productivity
• social security
• sweden

• Zentrum für Sozialpolitik - Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Abteilung - Universität Bremen, Bremen 33, Federal Republic of Germany

  Winfried Schmähl

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