Health inequalities and the prolongation of working life

At a glance

Project leader : Dr. Isabel Baumann
Deputy of project leader : Prof. Dr. Julia Dratva
Project team : Prof. Dr. Neda Agahi, Erica Benz, Prof. Dr. Ignacio Cabib, Harpa Sif Eyjólfsdóttir, Sonja Feer, Prof. Dr. Johann Fritzell, Dr. Ariane Froidevaux, Dr. Vanessa Gut, Prof. Dr. Linda Hassing, Dr. Andreas Ihle, Prof. Dr. Boo Johansson, Dr. Nicholas V. Karayannis, Prof. Dr. Matthias Kliegel, Dr. Stefanie König, Prof. Dr. Christian Maggiori, Ulrich Roth, Prof. Dr. John A. Sturgeon, Linn Zulka
Project budget : CHF 816'664
Project status : ongoing
Funding partner : SNSF (Ambizione / Projekt Nr. 179696)
Project partner : Université de Genève / Centre interfacultaire de géronotologie et d'études de vulnérabilités, Karolinska Institute / Aging Research Center, Gothenburg University / Research Group Adult Development and Aging, Haute école de travail social Fribourg HETS-FR, University of Chile / Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Texas at Arlington, Ohio University / School of Rehabilitation and Communication Sciences, University of Washington / School of Medicine , Innovage
Contact person : Isabel Baumann

Description

Current demographic and economic developments in Western societies fuel a trend of extending working life. The public and academic debates about postponing retirement age give little attention to heterogeneity in aging. This project aims at examining the effects of the transition from employment to retirement on health outcomes for different social groups. In particular, we explore how the extension of working life and later life health conditions influence each other. One the one hand, we examine how retirement transition patterns, such as gradual or direct retirement transitions, affect individuals’ health outcomes. On the other hand, we investigate how adverse health conditions affect labor market integration during late careers and transitions to retirement.

To this end, we adopt an interdisciplinary life course perspective that comprises both individual and institutional level factors. We draw from secondary data from Switzerland, as well as Sweden and the United States. We apply methods that allow for causal inference (such as difference-in-difference analysis), longitudinal methods (such as fixed-effects or sequence analysis) as well as methods appropriate to analyze particularly large or small datasets (such as machine learning or Bayesian statistics).

Our project contributes to unveiling the mechanisms that underpin health inequalities in the prolongation of working life. We aim at identifying which mid-life associated factors may best explain health differentials in the transition to retirement. These factors may offer effective targets for early intervention, improving health outcomes in old age. As ever more working lives end in late retirement, it is becoming increasingly important for researchers and policy makers to understand how this affects health in late life.

The project consists of 4 subprojects. For information about the current subprojects, please see section "Open Data and Downloads".

Further information

Publications

Baumann, Isabel; Wagner, Aylin; Feer, Sonja; Ihle, Andreas; Kliegel, Matthias,

2023.

Does raising retirement age affect retirees’ health? : evidence from a Swiss reform [poster].

In:

Epidemiology Symposium "Causality to Get Population Health Sciences Right", EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland, 29 March 2023.
Baumann, Isabel; Feer, Sonja,

2023.

Wenn die Gesundheit nicht mitspielt.

Gerontologie CH : Praxis + Forschung.

2023(1).
Feer, Sonja; Lipps, Oliver; Dratva, Julia; Baumann, Isabel,

2022.

Health and labor force participation among older workers in Switzerland : a growth curve analysis.

European Journal of Ageing.

19(4), pp. 1395-1406.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-022-00716-z
Baumann, Isabel; Burkhalter, Denise; Wagner, Aylin; Feer, Sonja; Wieber, Frank; Ihle, Andreas,

2022.

Financial reasons for retiring after the statutory retirement age and health: evidence from Switzerland [paper].

In:

Epi Unit Meeting, Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, Sweden, 2. May 2022.
Burkhalter, Denise; Wagner, Aylin; Feer, Sonja; Wieber, Frank; Ihle, Andreas; Baumann, Isabel,

2022.

Financial reasons for working beyond the statutory retirement age : risk factors and associations with health in late life.

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

19(17), pp. 10505.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191710505
Baumann, Isabel; Froidevaux, Ariane; Cabib, Ignacio,

2022.

Health among workers retiring after the state pension age : a longitudinal and comparative study.

BMC Geriatrics.

22(984).

Available from: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-022-03690-4
Baumann, Isabel; Cabib, Ignacio; Eyjólfsdóttir, Harpa S.; Agahi, Neda,

2022.

Part-time work and health in late careers : evidence from a longitudinal and cross-national study.

SSM - Population Health.

18.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2022.101091
Feer, Sonja; Lipps, Oliver; Dratva, Julia; Baumann, Isabel,

2021.

Health status and labour force participation among older workers in Switzerland : a growth curve analysis [poster].

In:

14th European Public Health Conference, online, 10-12 November 2021.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckab165.314
Baumann, Isabel,

2021.

Studying flexible retirement and health : challenges and insights from an international perspective.

In:

Finnish Centre for Pensions Research Webinar : Extending working lives and healthy ageing – What role for flexible retirement?, 19 April 2021.

Available from: https://www.etk.fi/en/topical-issues/extending-working-lives-and-healthy-ageing-what-role-for-flexible-retirement/
Baumann, Isabel; Madero-Cabib, Ignacio; Eyjólfsdóttir, Harpa Sif; Agahi, Neda,

2021.

Does gradual retirement have health benefits? : evidence from a comparative study [paper].

In:

2nd Conference of the Swiss Society of Health Economics, online, 15 January 2021.
Baumann, Isabel; Madero-Cabib, Ignacio,

2021.

Retirement trajectories in countries with flexible retirement policies but different welfare regimes.

Journal of Aging & Social Policy.

33(2), pp. 138-160.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/08959420.2019.1685358
Suter, Jasmine; Baumann, Isabel,

2020.

BGM mit Fokus auf Mitarbeitende 50+ : die Weiterbeschäftigung bringt Vorteile für alle.

Personal Schweiz.

pp. 24-25.
Baumann, Isabel; Madero-Cabib, Ignacio,

2020.

Gesunde Rentner im Arbeitsmarkt von Chile bis Dänemark.

Schweizer Personalvorsorge.

2020(5), pp. 91-95.

Available from: https://vps.epas.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/vps/shop/spv/SPV_0520.pdf
Froidevaux, Ariane; Baumann, Isabel; Madero-Cabib, Ignacio,

2020.

Let’s not forget the macro-level factors! : how older workers’ interlocked employment and health trajectories are shaped by welfare regimes and the social norm for working longer.

In:

1st Careers Division of the Academy of Management Community Conference, Vienna, Austria, 14-15 February 2020.
Baumann, Isabel; Steiger-Sackmann, Sabine,

2019.

Eine Verlängerung des Arbeitslebens muss attraktiv gestaltet werden.

Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

pp. 12.

Available from: https://www.nzz.ch/meinung/eine-verlaengerung-des-arbeitslebens-muss-attraktiv-gestaltet-werden-ld.1521279
Feer, Sonja; Lipps, Oliver; Dratva, Julia; Baumann, Isabel,

2019.

Health status and labour force participation among older workers in Switzerland : a multilevel for growth analysis [poster].

In:

IAGG-ER, Gothenburg, Sweden, 23-25 May 2019.
Baumann, Isabel; Madero-Cabib, Ignacio,

2019.

Retirement trajectories in countries with flexible retirement policies but different welfare state contexts.

In:

International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics European Region Congress 2019 (IAGG-ER), Gothenburg, Sweden, 23-25 May 2019.

Open Data and Downloads

Downloads

Flyer Subprojects.pdf

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