Abstract

Our study examines the socialization of retirement in post-modern societies emerging from changes in individuals’ biographies. We exploit a theoretical micro-macro model on post-retirement employment to contribute new evidence regarding the influencing factors of the economic socialization of retirement. The theoretical model shows how changes of individual life course trajectories influence individual behavior and the development of post-retirement employment as one type within the concept of emerging patchwork biographies in society on the macro level. On the micro-level we pursue a two-stage research design. First, we examine the probability of pursuing post-retirement employment. Conditional on being in the labor force in retirement, in the second stage, we study transition times into different post-retirement jobs trajectories. For the empirical model we generate various indicators referring to different stages in life, to capture the influence of life course trajectories on outcomes of older people in retirement. Administrative data allow us to identify employed retirees, and to trace their whole biographies. We find evidence for an economic socialization of retirement. In addition, we show that motivations for post-retirement employment are not mutually exclusive. We find evidence for psycho-social motivations, which we refer to as active aging, but also for economic motivations to gain additional income through post-retirement employment. The different motivations are related to differences in life course trajectories.