better health — shorter working lives

Trends in labour force participation and health status of older adults in Latin America reveal a puzzling pattern: the greatly improved health (and labour) conditions of recent years have translated into markedly lower labour force participation.

... health has clearly improved in all Latin American countries in the past 30 to 40 years. ... older males are much better off now than they were towards the end of the past century. Despite this, their LFPRs [участие в рабочей силе] have declined steadily. The result observed for several countries in Latin America is in line with what has been observed in recent decades for more developed economies. This finding indicates that a large share of those not working beyond age 60 have increasingly good health, and that health variation is therefore not the key reason for current retirement trends. The explanation must be sought elsewhere: for instance, in the characteristics of the labour market and in public pension programs, or in workers’ preferences. We hope that these findings contribute to the current debate on pension reform across the globe.