Cohort Differences in Retirement Expectations and Realizations

This chapter compares retirement expectations, retirement patterns, and expectations of future work across different cohorts of the Health and Retirement Study, including the new cohort of Baby Boomers currently in their late 50’s. We find that the Boomers are more strongly attached to the labor force as they enter their retirement years than were earlier cohorts at the same age. Compared to the preceding birth cohort, they expect to retire nearly one year later, they are 14 percent more likely to expect to be working full-time at age 65, and they are 21 percent more likely to expect to work in the future if they are not currently working. We find that these differences are not entirely explained by cohort differences in socioeconomic status, pension incentives, demographics, or health. We conclude that the Baby Boomers may have stronger preferences for work than previous cohorts.