Education and retirement: Does University education at mid-age extend working life?

To our knowledge, this paper provides the first study evaluating the effects of higher education for adults on the timing of retirement. Using detailed longitudinal population register data 1982-2010, we track first-time enrollees in higher education in 1992-1993. Our sample is aged 42-55 at the tim...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IZA journal of European labor studies 2013, Vol.2 (1), p.1-22, Article 16
Main Authors: Stenberg, Anders, Westerlund, Olle
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult Education Older Workers Retirement
Adults
Age
Analysis
Developing our understanding of the determinants of later life
Early retirement
Economic theory
Economics
Economics and Finance
Education
Employment
European Integration
Higher education
Human capital
Hypotheses
Labor Economics
Labor force
Labor market
Labor supply
nationalekonomi
Original Article
Pensions
Population
Population Economics
Retirement
Secondary education
Studies
work and retirement
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Summary:To our knowledge, this paper provides the first study evaluating the effects of higher education for adults on the timing of retirement. Using detailed longitudinal population register data 1982-2010, we track first-time enrollees in higher education in 1992-1993. Our sample is aged 42-55 at the time of enrollment and thus aged 60-73 in 2010. We find that higher education increases labor market survival rates when aged 61-66 by about 5 percentage points. The estimates represent relatively large effects. Tentative calculations indicate that if enrollment occurs at age 42, the retirement delay represents about one percent in yearly earnings returns per year of tertiary education.
ISSN:2193-9012
2193-9012
DOI:10.1186/2193-9012-2-16