SBR-9422541 Marjorie Honig Twenty five years ago the most important influences on the decision by married women of when to retire were the husband's health and retirement status and family income. In contrast, factors related to their reward for work-- wages, pension benefits, and social security entitlements-- were found to be insignificant in explaining when women left the labor force. Because of the pervasive changes in the labor force behavior of women since 1970 and the dramatic increases in the rate of divorce, it is likely that the current generation of working women can no longer count on their husband's asset and pension incomes to provide economic security in retirement. This is a matter for public concern because of the implications for the economic well-being of women after retirement. Black and Hispanic women are particularly vulnerable since they are less likely to emerge from divorce or separation with significant asset holdings, given the low levels of wealth accumulation in those households. The PI uses a new longitudinal data set, the Health and Retirement Survey, to examine the retirement expectations of women workers. This analysis allows the PI to measure these women's expectations of their likely retirement income and well-being. These expectations are also used to test the validity of three popular family labor supply models: the neo-classical joint utility model, the individual utility model, and the traditional family model.
