Abstract:
The U.S. elderly labor force participation rates (LFPR) has been increasing during
the last two decades. Using the Michigan Health and Retirement Study (HRS) survey,
this paper analyzes the e ects of subjective and various objective health measures on
elderly labor force participation decisions in the U.S. over the time period 2002-2012.
The results were obtained for two age groups: 50-61 (where almost no one is eligible
for Social Security (SS) and pensions) and 70-81 (where almost everyone is covered
by SS and/or pensions). The empirical ndings suggest that elderly Americans drop
out of the labor force only if they subjectively rate their health as poor.