earticle

영어

Purpose: This paper investigates the factors influencing retirement decisions among the middle aged and elderly in Taiwan. Method: The data used are from three panels and five waves of the Survey of Health and Living Status (SHLS) from 1989 to 2003, which contains detailed information on individuals, family structure, health, social support, employment, and economic status. Duration models are used to estimate the hazard rates of individual retirement behaviour. Findings: First, for the cohort analyses, principal empirical results of the first wave of three panels are similar, including that older workers, female workers, Mainlander workers, and workers with poor health have higher hazard rates and are more likely to retire. In contrast, Hakka workers and married workers are less likely to retire than others. Second, for the transition analyses, the empirical results strongly support the hypothesis that if workers have a pension, they are more likely to retire during three different periods. Research limitations: The main limitation of this paper is the survey, which mainly focused on individual employment histories and collected limited data on employer responses and government’s policies.
Further, the response rates on wages, income, and assets were low, reflecting the reluctance of participants to divulge their true income. Social implications: National Health Insurance may provide a lot of improvements for workers’ health and allow the hazard ratios of retirement to decrease. Originality/value: This paper strongly supports the Taiwanese government to change their pension policy for early retirement with high interest payment of pension benefits.