Retirement Effects, Quality of Life

This entry is concerned with the impact of the transition from work to retirement on the QoL of individuals. Retirement in this entry refers to the commencement of the stage in a person's life course in which he/she is no longer gainfully employed (full retirement), although gradual retirement (involving work hour reductions and phasing into retirement) will also be considered. Moreover, we differentiate between regular retirement at the standard age for retirement and early retirement. The eligibility ages for public old-age benefits vary across countries and in some countries also between women and men. Pensionable age is defined by the OECD (2011) as the age at which people can first draw full benefits (i.e. without actuarial reduction for early retirement). In many countries, it is identical to the normal pension age set out in legislation. In others, it is possible to retire earlier than the normal age without an "actuarial" reduction in pension benefits (given a long duration of benefit payment and fulfilment of contribution requirements). Finally, some countries do not have a normal pension age, but define a corridor (i.e. a range of ages) at which the pension may first be drawn. Pensionable ages as defined by the OECD (2011) are designed to be comparable between countries (see table below for overview).