Older Americans Would Work Longer If Jobs Were Flexible
Older Americans, even those who are long retired, have strong willingness to work, especially in jobs with flexible schedules. For many, labor force participation near or after normal retirement age is limited more by a lack of acceptable job opportunities or low expectations about finding them than by unwillingness to work longer. This paper establishes these findings using an approach to identification based on strategic survey questions (SSQs), purpose-designed to complement behavioral data. These findings suggest that demand-side factors are important in explaining late-in-life labor market behavior and need to be considered in designing policies aimed at promoting working longer.
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Copy CitationJohn Ameriks, Joseph S. Briggs, Andrew Caplin, Minjoon Lee, Matthew D. Shapiro, and Christopher Tonetti, "Older Americans Would Work Longer If Jobs Were Flexible," NBER Working Paper 24008 (2017), https://doi.org/10.3386/w24008.Download Citation
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Non-Technical Summaries
- Author(s): John AmeriksJoseph S. BriggsAndrew CaplinMinjoon LeeMatthew D. ShapiroChristopher TonettiAbout 40 percent of retirees surveyed were willing to return to work in a job like their previous one, but 60 percent would return if...
Published Versions
John Ameriks & Joseph Briggs & Andrew Caplin & Minjoon Lee & Matthew D. Shapiro & Christopher Tonetti, 2020. "Older Americans Would Work Longer if Jobs Were Flexible," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, vol 12(1), pages 174-209. citation courtesy of 
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