Working Pensioners in Europe - Demographics, health, economic situation and the role of pension systems

Over the past decades, combining pension benefits with work income has been made more accessible for pensioners in many European countries. The literature on working pensioners choosing a flexible transition into retirement is to date relatively sparse. This article adds to the few cross-country studies and explicitly investigates the role of pension systems in facilitating or hampering flexible retirement. By using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), this article studies the within-country determinants of working pensioners and finds that demographic variables as well as health variables, economic variables and the pension system are important determinants why individuals choose to combine pension income with work income at the end of their working career. I apply counterfactual simulations to investigate cross-country variation. These counterfactual simulations reveal that variation in working pensioner proportions between countries can be explained by economic differences and differences in pension systems.