How to Measure Retirement Age? A Comparison of Survey and Register Data

Abstract

Due to an increasing heterogeneity in retirement transitions, the measurement of retirement age constitutes a major challenge for researchers and policymakers. In order to better understand the concept of retirement age, we compare a series of measures for retirement age assessed on the basis of survey and register data. We use data from Sweden, where flexible retirement schemes are implemented and register data are available. We link survey data from the Swedish Level of Living Survey with register data from the Swedish Longitudinal Integration Database for Health Insurance and Labour Market Studies. We create four measures of retirement age based on these datasets, applying approaches that have been used in previous literature. We analyse the means and distributions of these measures and evaluate the correlations between them. Finally, we regress common predictors of retirement age such as gender or education on the four measures of retirement age to examine potential differences in size, direction and statistical significance of the associations. We find that the survey measure of retirement age resembles the following two ways of defining retirement age in the register data: first, the age at which people receive more than half their income from old-age or disability pension and, second, the age at which they were not gainfully employed for at least 2 years. This insight gives us a better understanding of when in the retirement transition process, individuals identify with retirement. Moreover, it provides decision support for researchers working with register data to determine which measure to use.

Physical functioning as a predictor of retirement: Has its importance changed over a thirty-year period in Sweden?

“…This might introduce information bias. However, a paper by Eyjólfsdóttir et al ( 2021 ) examining different definitions of retirement age, using the same materials as the current study, did not find significant differences between self-reported retirement age and retirement age attained by this current definition, nor by using different cut-offs than 50%. Another limitation is that we employ the same definition of retirement over the three decades under study, although there have been many reforms during the period that have made the retirement process more flexible over time.…”

“…(Baumann et al 2020 ; Eyjólfsdóttir et al 2019 ; Svensson et al 2015 ). A sensitivity analysis using different cut-offs for the definition of retirement (when income from pension exceeds 30%, 40%, 60%, and 70% of annual income) did not show differences against using the 50% cut-off, giving us confidence in the above-mentioned definition of retirement (Eyjólfsdóttir et al 2021 ). As can be seen in Fig.…”

“…The participation rate was relatively high in all waves, ensuring generalizability to the Swedish population. In addition, we made use of a register-based outcome not liable to subjective recall error to assess retirement timing (Eyjólfsdóttir et al 2021 ). Using annual register data has its limitations; one can estimate whether, in a given calendar year, income from pensions succeeded income from employment.…”

“…We are interested in exit from paid employment and not only the formal date of retirement (Hoffmann 2015 ), and for that reason we chose to set the retirement age as when pension income including disability benefits exceeds 50% of total annual income. This operationalization of retirement age has previously been described (Eyjólfsdóttir et al 2021 ) and used in other studies of retirement using income registers, e.g. (Baumann et al 2020 ; Eyjólfsdóttir et al 2019 ; Svensson et al 2015 ).…”

Subjective well-being across the retirement transition—Historical differences and the role of perceived control.

“…In the current study, we focused on those who retired between their respective baseline assessment (1996, 2002, or 2008) and the first follow-up six years later (2002, 2008, or 2014) to increase representativeness (Wetzel, Bowen, & Huxhold, 2019). The definition of retirement differs between studies (Eyjólfsdóttir, Baumann, Agahi, & Lennartsson, 2019). In the present study, we defined retirement as withdrawing old age pensions (cf.…”