A great deal of research has been devoted to explaining increasingly early retirement rates, but much less attention has been paid to the factors affecting those who continue to hold jobs into their relative old age. Yet, the success of policy efforts to encourage later retirement will depend on the conditions under which continued employment for older individuals is available. This project will examine several aspects of work - as opposed to retirement - among the older population. The potential for workers to stay longer in their career jobs appears to be limited, so continued work is likely to take the form of """"""""bridge employment"""""""", which may well be part-time. However, research on younger workers indicates that various constraints act to limit the extent of part4ime work. Such constraints also interact with policy provisions related to Social Security and health insurance to govern the conditions of part-time work for older workers. Increases in the prevalence of part-time work among older workers in recent years can illuminate the nature of various constraints on part-ime work. Analyzing the response to changes in policy provisions that interact with those conditions is the key to this approach. This project will focus on changes in the Social Security earnings test for 62-69 year olds, and changes in continuation health insurance coverage for those under the age of 65, in order to isolate some of the underlying factors that govern the recent evolution of part-time work and partial retirement.
