Leisure and housing consumption after retirement: new evidence on the life-cycle hypothesis

Foreseeable income reductions around retirement should not affect aggregate consumption. However, given higher leisure endowments after retirement, theory also predicts lower consumption of leisure substitutes. To avoid misinterpreting this predicted drop as a puzzle, our novel approach focuses on housing consumption (complementary to leisure in utility) and controls for leisure changes. In Germany tenants represent roughly half of all households, making many housing expenditures directly observable in micro data. We find significant negative impacts of the retirement status on housing consumption, which is hard to reconcile with life-cycle theory. Despite the lock-in nature of past housing decisions, income reductions at retirement have additional – though small – effects on housing.

The Association Between Physical Activity and Self-Rated Health Among Older Adults

Although there is substantial evidence on the association between physical activity and self-rated health among older adults globally, there is a paucity of findings on this topic for the aging Indonesian population. The present study was conducted to investigate the association between self-reported physical activity and self-rated health among older adults in Indonesia. The data used were from the fifth wave of the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS). A multilevel regression approach was used for analysis. A sample of 1,813 older adults (aged 60 and over) within 311 communities was used in the study. Self-reported physical activity measured by time spent walking was the independent variable, and self-rated health was the dependent variable. The analysis was adjusted for gender, age, education level, marital status, religiosity, retirement status, neighborhood safety, extroversion, and subjective poverty. The results revealed that increased physical activity was consistently associated with better self-rated health in both unadjusted (β=0.04, p<0.05) and adjusted (β=0.06, p<0.01) models. To improve public health in Indonesia, primary health care professionals, health policymakers, and other health promoters should consider including physical activity in health policies and encourage older individuals to engage in regular physical activity.

Income Status and Life Satisfaction

The importance of both income rank and relative income, as indicators of status, has long been recognised in the literature on life satisfaction and happiness. Recently, several authors have made explicit comparisons of the relative importance of these two measures of income status, and concluded that rank dominates to the extent that reference income becomes insignificant in regressions including both these explanatory variables, and that even absolute or household income, otherwise always positively related to happiness, may lose statistical significance. Here we test this hypothesis with a large UK panel (British Household Panel Survey and Understanding Society) for 1996–2017, split by age and retirement status, and find, contrary to previous results, that rank, household income and reference income are all usually important explanatory variables, but with significant differences between subgroups. This finding holds when rank is in its often-used relative form, and also with absolute rank.

The relationship between education level, retirement status, and civic engagement among older adults in Indonesia

The Indonesian population is aging very rapidly and as the number of old people increases, the number of retirees increases as well. Many scholars have argued the benefits of civic engagement in old age, but there is lack of empirical evidence of the factors associated with civic engagement in Indonesia. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between education levels, retirement status, and civic engagement among older adults in Indonesia. The study used data from the fifth wave of the Indonesia Family and Life Survey which was held in late 2014 and early 2015. The study included participants aged 56 years and older, the mandatory age for retirement in 2014 in Indonesia. Multiple regression was modelled for data analysis. The main results revealed that those who completed junior and senior high school and high education exhibited more civic engagement than those who completed only primary education. Moreover, the study found that those who were retired were less engaged in civic activities than those still in labor force. These relationships held true even after controlling for gender, age, marital status, personality traits, religiosity, and self-rated health variables. To strengthen democracy and growth, education needs to be re-emphasized and there is need for further investigation concerning retirement and civic engagement in Indonesia.

Understanding Credit Card Usage Behavior of Elderly Korean Consumers for Sustainable Growth: Implications for Korean Credit Card Companies

The Republic of Korea is the fastest aging country in the world, and its silver market, which is the market segment broadly defined as senior citizens, began to emerge in 2008 as Korean baby boomers started to retire. Given that the assets of households headed by individuals 55 years of age and over are much higher than those of average Korean households, it is essential for Korean financial institutions targeting elderly consumer groups to understand their credit card usage behavior, as it can be very attractive and provide the potential to lead to sustainable growth for institutions, while the market targeting for this group has not been well developed yet. This study examined elderly Korean consumers’ credit card usage behavior in terms of key demographic variables. In this study, we found that the number of cards owned was negatively related to age and positively related to income level. In addition, those who were not retired owned more credit cards than those who were. Although the average monthly expenditure by credit cards was positively related to income, it was not significantly different in terms of age or retirement status. The findings from this research provide significant implications for marketers of credit card companies when searching for key target groups, particularly elderly consumers.

Examining the municipal-level representativeness of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) cohort: an analysis using Calgary participant baseline data

Introduction The Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) is a rich, nationally representative population-based resource that can be used for multiple purposes. Although municipalities may wish to use CLSA data to address local policy needs, how well localized CLSA cohorts reflect municipal populations is unknown. Because Calgary, Alberta, is home to one of 11 CLSA data collection sites, our objective was to explore how well the Calgary CLSA sample represented the general Calgary population on select sociodemographic variables. Methods Baseline characteristics (i.e. sex, marital status, ethnicity, education, retirement status, income, immigration, internal migration) of CLSA participants who visited the Calgary data collection site between 2011 and 2015 were compared to analogous profiles derived from the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS) and 2016 Census datasets, which spanned the years when data were collected on the CLSA participants. Results Calgary CLSA participants were representative of the Calgary population for age, sex and Indigenous identity. Discrepancies of over 5% with the NHS and/or 2016 Census were found for marital status, measures of ethnic diversity (i.e. immigrant status, place of birth, non-official language spoken at home), internal migration, income, retirement status and education. Conclusion Voluntary studies face challenges in recruiting fully representative cohorts. Communities opting to use CLSA data at a municipal level, including the 10 other CLSA data collection sites, should exercise caution when interpreting the results of these analyses, as CLSA participants may not be fully representative of the local population on select characteristics of interest.

Cobertura médica de una persona adulta mayor: razones humanitarias por sobre cuestiones administrativas

A través del presente comentario se intentará hacer una breve síntesis del razonamiento de la justicia federal mendocina en una ejemplar decisión que recayó sobre una persona adulta mayor. El tribunal interviniente teniendo en cuenta la elevada edad del amparista, su condición de jubilado y su estado de incertidumbre como consecuencia de la actitud desplegada por la obra social, lo considero merecedor de una tutela preventiva y resolvió mantener su afiliación a la obra social pese haber adquirido su condición de jubilado. Through this comment, an attempt will be made to summarize the reasoning of the federal justice system in Mendoza in an exemplary decision that fell on an elderly person. The intervening court, taking into account the high age of the amparo, his retirement status and his state of uncertainty as a consequence of the attitude displayed by the social work, considered him deserving of preventive protection and decided to maintain his affiliation to the social work despite having acquired his retirement status.

Personality, Retirement, and Cognitive Impairment: Moderating and Mediating Associations

Objectives: Five-factor model (FFM) personality traits, including higher conscientiousness and lower neuroticism, are associated with lower risk of dementia and cognitive impairment. In this research, we test whether retirement status moderates and/or mediates the relation between personality and cognitive impairment. Method: We used data from the Health and Retirement Study ( N = 9899), a longitudinal study of Americans over the age of 50 years, to examine moderating and mediating associations between personality traits and retirement status on risk of dementia and cognitive impairment not dementia (CIND) over an 8–10 year follow-up. Results: Personality and retirement each had strong, independent associations with risk of dementia and CIND. There were not, however, strong or consistent, moderating or mediating associations between personality and retirement predicting impairment risk. Discussion: Overall, these results indicate that personality and retirement are independent risk factors for incident cognitive impairment. Mechanisms other than retirement are likely to explain this association.

Does Retirement Get Under the Skin and Into the Head? Testing the Pathway from Retirement to Cardio-Metabolic Risk, then to Episodic Memory

Many studies document significant causal impacts of retirement on cognitive abilities. It remains unclear if cognitive functioning could be hindered in post-retirement due to heightened physiological responses to stress. Using repeated observations of biomarkers, retirement status, and the word-recall test score from the Health and Retirement Study (n = 25,367; 15,343 among women and 10,024 among men), the study tests this pathway, separately for men and women. The study employs the two-stage least squares fixed-effects model that simultaneously fits three equations predicting the total-recall score, cardio-metabolic risk index, and retirement status. Being retired for at least a year decreases cardio-metabolic risk for men and women, and the resulting relief of cardio-metabolic risk improves cognitive functioning for women but not for men. Retirement does not lead to a downward health spiral as previously suggested; rather, it provides a much needed relief from stressors for those who are at health risks.