title: Barriers to Later Retirement for Men: Physical Challenges of Work and Increases in the Full Retirement Age.
abstract: Policy changes intended to delay retirements of older workers and extend their work lives may run up against barriers owing to rising physical challenges of work as people age. We examine whether physical challenges at work influence employment transitions of older male workers in the age range for which public policy is trying to extend work lives and whether older male workers are able to mitigate these challenges while still remaining employed. The evidence indicates that physical challenges pose a barrier to extending work lives, although some older male workers with physically demanding jobs are able to mitigate these demands-either at new jobs or with the same employer. Our findings suggest that greater accommodation of physical challenges faced by older workers would likely increase the success of policies intended to induce later retirement.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Economics, The State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Joanne Song
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: McLaughlin
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Economics, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA.|3 National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, USA.|4 IZA Institute of Labor Economics, Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Neumark
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D003657:Decision Making; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012179:Retirement / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D012943:Social Security / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States; D014937:Work / Q000523:psychology
keywords: Social Security reform; employment barriers; physical challenges; retirement