Instead of bowling alone? Unretirement of pensioners in Sweden

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the re-entry to the workforce of fully retired persons (unretirement) and whether the decision to resume work depends primarily on social or economic reasons. Design/methodology/approach – Using Swedish register data for already retired individuals older than 55, the incidence of unretirement is studied. Determinant factors behind the decision to re-enter the labor force is analyzed in a binary response logit model. Findings – Unretirement varies between 6 and 14 percent under two different definitions. We find support for higher pension income to decrease the probability to unretire. Other determinants, such as marital status, largely support an interpretation that unretirement is a life-style decision rather than a response to an experienced negative economic situation post retirement. Research limitations/implications – Due to data limitations, the focus in this study is on the extensive margin (the event of returning to the labor force) and not on hours ...

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