TY  - JOUR
AU  - Levine,Phillip J.
AU  - Mitchell,Olivia S.
AU  - Phillips,John W.
TI  - Worklife Determinants of Retirement Income Differentials Between Men and Women
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7243
PY  - 1999
Y2  - July 1999
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7243
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7243.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Phillip B. Levine
Department of Economics
Wellesley College
106 Central Street
Wellesley, MA 02481
Tel: 781/283-2162
Fax: 781/283-2177
E-Mail: plevine@wellesley.edu

Olivia S. Mitchell
University of Pennsylvania
Wharton School
3620 Locust Walk, St 3000 SH-DH
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6302
Tel: 215-898-0424
Fax: 215/898-0310
E-Mail: mitchelo@wharton.upenn.edu

John W R. Phillips
National Institute on Aging/National Institutes of
Division of Behavioral and Social Research
7201 Wisconsin Avenue
Gateway Building, Suite 533
Bethesda, MD 20892-9205 
Tel: 301-496-3138
Fax: 301-402-0051
E-Mail: john.phillips@nih.gov
AB  - Women enter retirement having spent fewer years in market work, earned less over their lifetimes, and worked in different jobs than men of the same age. This study examines whether these differences in work-life experiences help explain why many women end up with lower levels of retirement income in old age. We use the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), which provides information on labor market histories along with the ability to predict retirement income from employer pensions, social security benefits, and investment returns.  We document differences in anticipated retirement income by sex that exist largely between nonmarried men and women. Multivariate models show that 85 percent of this retirement income gap can be attributed to differences in lifetime labor market earnings, years worked, and occupational segregation by sex. Our results suggest that as women's work-life experiences become more congruent with men's over time, the gap in retirement income between men and women may shrink.
ER  -