The Rise in Female Labor Force Participation and the Decline in Male Retirement Age

The significant decrease in the labor force participation of older men remains a puzzle, despite many studies that have analyzed the role of Social Security and pension incentives. This paper examines whether the population trends of rising labor force participation among women and earlier retirement among men are present at the household level. The results indicate that a husband’s retirement hazard increases with the accumulated value of his wife’s career earnings. Simulations suggest that the increase in married women’s earnings from 1965 to 2000 could account for approximately 17 percent of the earlier retirement experienced by men during this period. ∗Harvard University, Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research, 1730 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA 02138, [email protected]