Page 15 - IDEA Study 3 2015 Duchodova studie

Retirement Decisions in SHARE Data In the rest of this Chapter, we analyse respondents' retirement decisions in the SHARE, a longitudinal study of a representative sample of respondents aged 50+ and their partners. The results are based on three waves of data collection in 2007, 2011 and 2013. A detailed description of our sample in each wave is provided in the Appendix and in the SHARE methodological and analytical publications, Borsch- Supan et al. (2011) and Borsch-Supan et al. (2013). Because the SHARE data only include limited data on early retirement and disability pensions (the sample size for these is too small) we only analyse old-age retirement decisions. Column graph 1.2 depicts the average effective retirement age for all already-retired respondents aged 50-74 years. Four main patterns can be observed with respect to geographic regions: first, in Western, Northern, and Southern Europe men and women retire at the same age; second, in Northern Europe the effective retirement age is much higher than in other regions; third, women retire very early in Eastern Europe and in the Czech Republic; fourth, Czech men retire at the same age as men in Southern and Western Europe. In particular, the average retirement age in Nordic countries is more than three years higher than in Southern and Western countries and the Czech Republic (for men only). In Eastern European countries and the Czech Republic, there is a marked difference in the effective retirement of women, primarily due to legislation allowing for early retirement based on the number of children raised. In the Czech Republic, the average effective retirement age is 59.4 years among men and 56.1 years among women. GRAPH 1.2 64 62 60 58 56 54 52 50 Average Retirement Age by Gender N W S E CZ Source: Data SHARE Area Men Women mean(Rgender) An important question to consider is whether these differences in retirement decisions are due to underlying demographic or health differences, or whether they are driven by institutional provisions for retirement and policies in particular countries that generate different incentives. If individuals differ between the 13