Determinants of early retirement in the European union

Abstract

This study uses a subsample of 18 European countries of the first release of the dataset of the fifth round of the European Social Survey to investigate the factors that affect the desired age of retirement and the discrepancy between the actual and the desired age of retirement. We focus on a subsample of around 9,000 respondents in the age range of 50-64. We used multilevel linear regression models to investigate our research questions. We found that the desired age of retirement is explained by both personal (demographic and career) characteristics as well as country-specific characteristics (e.g., the GDP). However, the discrepancy between the actual and the desired retirement age is explained only by personal (demographic and career) characteristics. We suggest that early retirement is not just a habitus which appeared in the past decades, but also a complex phenomenon with social as well as financial characteristics. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.