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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

Average Retirement Age by Gender

64 E CZ
62
60
58
56
54
52
50

NW S

Source: Data SHARE Area mean(R gender)
Men Women

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

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