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Women Working Longer

Increased Employment at Older Ages

Edited by Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz

Women Working Longer

Increased Employment at Older Ages

Edited by Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz

Today, more American women than ever before stay in the workforce into their sixties and seventies. This trend emerged in the 1980s, and has persisted during the past three decades, despite substantial changes in macroeconomic conditions. Why is this so? Today’s older American women work full-time jobs at greater rates than women in other developed countries.
In Women Working Longer, editors Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz assemble new research that presents fresh insights on the phenomenon of working longer. Their findings suggest that education and work experience earlier in life are connected to women’s later-in-life work. Other contributors to the volume investigate additional factors that may play a role in late-life labor supply, such as marital disruption, household finances, and access to retirement benefits. A pioneering study of recent trends in older women’s labor force participation, this collection offers insights valuable to a wide array of social scientists, employers, and policy makers.

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National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report

Economics and Business: Business--Industry and Labor

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction
Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz

I. Transitions over the Life Cycle

1. Women Working Longer: Facts and Some Explanations
Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz

2. The Return to Work and Women’s Employment Decisions
Nicole Maestas

3. Understanding Why Black Women Are Not Working Longer
Joanna N. Lahey

II. Family Matters: Caregiving, Marriage, and Divorce

4. Changes in Marriage and Divorce as Drivers of Employment and Retirement of Older Women
Claudia Olivetti and Dana Rotz

5. Women Working Longer: Labor Market Implications of Providing Family Care
Sean Fahle and Kathleen McGarry

III. Financial Considerations: Resources, Pensions, and Social Security

6. Older Women’s Labor Market Attachment, Retirement Planning, and Household Debt
Annamaria Lusardi and Olivia S. Mitchell

7. Teaching, Teachers’ Pensions, and Retirement across Recent Cohorts of College-Graduate Women
Maria D. Fitzpatrick

8. The Role of Social Security Benefits in the Initial Increase of Older Women’s Employment: Evidence from the Social Security Notch
Alexander Gelber, Adam Isen, and Jae Song

9. The Hidden Resources of Women Working Longer: Evidence from Linked Survey-Administrative Data
C. Adam Bee and Joshua Mitchell

Appendix: The Health and Retirement Study (HRS)
Contributors
Author Index
Subject Index