TY  - JOUR
AU  - Hurd,Michael D.
TI  - The Effect of Labor Market Rigidities on the Labor Force Behavior of Older Workers
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 4462
PY  - 1993
Y2  - September 1993
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4462
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4462.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Michael D. Hurd
RAND Corporation
1776 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90407
Tel: 310/451-6945
Fax: 310/451-6923
E-Mail: mhurd@rand.org
M1  - published as Michael D. Hurd. "The Effect of Labor Market Rigidities on the Labor Force Rigidities on the Labor Force," in David A. Wise, editor, "Advances in the Economics of Aging" University of Chicago Press (1996)

AB  - Most older workers retire completely from full-time work with no intervening spell of part-time work. This is incompatible with a model of retirement in which tastes for work gradually shift with age toward leisure and hours may be freely chosen. A survey of institutional arrangements such as pensions and Social Security and of normal business practices resulting from fixed costs of employment and team production leads to the conclusion that most workers face rather limited choices consisting of a high-paying year-round job and low-paying part-time work. Therefore, someone approaching retirement who wants to retire gradually from a career type job will have to change jobs, losing job-related skills, and to compete for low-paying, easy entry jobs. Faced with that option most retire completely.
ER  -