Frontiers of research on work and retirement

Abstract

The shifting boundary between work and retirement and the always-emergent features of retirement practice create a wide opportunity for scholarship and research. After an overview of the scope of retirement research, this article articulates 4 areas that deserve special attention in the present historical circumstance: studies of the form and timing of retirement exits, the labor market for older workers, the quality of pensions, and the experience of retired life. The field should be wary of prescribing regimes of behavior for late careers and retirement that many people are unsuited to fulfill.