MACMILLAN Delaying Retirement: Progress and Challenges of Active Ageing in Europe, the United States and Japan

To a backdrop of ageing societies, pension crises and labour market reforms, this book investigates how the policy shift from early retirement to active ageing has affected individual retirement behaviour. Focusing on eleven European countries, the United States and Japan, it brings together leading international experts to analyze recent changes in pension systems. Their findings demonstrate that there has been a fundamental transition in pension policies and a steep increase in older workers’ retirement ages and employment rates. Yet changes in retirement behavior are not evenly distributed across all societal strata. This raises the serious concern that an overall rise in the retirement age will be accompanied by the re-emergence of social inequality in the transition from work to retirement. This innovative edited collection will appeal to students and scholars of sociology, economics, political science, human resources management, gerontology and social policy, and also to policy-makers and professionals dealing with older workers.  Review “This unique book offers an excellent and comprehensive overview of recent pension and labor market reforms and the way in which they have affected retirement transitions of older workers in thirteen countries. The book not only provides an impressive synthesis of the state of the art in the discussion about ‘Active Ageing’, but also proposes a novel and innovative theoretical framework to scientifically analyse retirement transitions under changing contextual conditions.  This is an indispensable text for scientist, students, and practitioners in the fields of pension and retirement research.” (Gerd Naegele, Director, Institute of Gerontology, TU Dortmund University, Germany) From the Back Cover To a backdrop of ageing societies, pension crises and labour market reforms, this book investigates how the policy shift from early retirement to active ageing has affected individual retirement behaviour. Focusing on eleven European countries, the United States and Japan, it brings together leading international experts to analyze recent changes in pension systems. Their findings demonstrate that there has been a fundamental transition in pension policies and a steep increase in older workers’ retirement ages and employment rates. Yet changes in retirement behavior are not evenly distributed across all societal strata. This raises the serious concern that an overall rise in the retirement age will be accompanied by the re-emergence of social inequality in the transition from work to retirement. This innovative edited collection will appeal to students and scholars of sociology, economics, political science, human resources management, gerontology and social policy, and also to policy-makers and professionals dealing with older workers.  About the Author Dirk Hofäcker is Professor of Quantitative Research Methods at the Institute for Social Policy and Social Work, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.  Moritz Hess is Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Institute of Gerontology, University of Dortmund, Germany.  Stefanie König is Post-Doctoral Researcher at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.