Objectives: Extending working lives is a major strategy in policy responses to ageing populations. This is currently being implemented by means of the increasing UK state pension age. However, the health effects of such changes are highly debatable. A systematic review conducted by this thesis revealed that previous research on the topic has provided a diverse set of findings. One of the reasons for the lack of agreement between previous studies is the high degree of heterogeneity in the study samples of older adults. This is statistically revealed by a meta-analysis conducted in this study. The research presented within this thesis examines whether extending working lives is beneficial for health, and focuses on the importance of accounting for quality of work when considering these effects. Methods: The study used respondents from waves 1 to 5 of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing who worked until state pension age and then entered either later-life employment or retirement. Linear spline regressions examined trajectories of depression, self-rated health and cognitive function across the retirement age period, stratified by work quality and retirement. Propensity score matching was subsequently used to estimate unbiased treatment effects of extended working as opposed to retirement, and then of poor and good quality work individually in relation to retirement. Results: The spline models indicated entering retirement from work was associated with a significant change in patterns of depression and self-rated health, but continuation of work was not. Retiree trajectories consistently showed poorer outcomes than those of respondents who were working. The results of the propensity score matching found no significant differences in health on the basis of belonging to the group of overall workers compared to retirees. However when work was stratified on the basis of its quality, significant differences became apparent. Belonging to the group of poor quality workers was associated with significantly worse depression than belonging to both the good quality workers and retirees, and belonging to the group of good quality worker was associated with significantly better self-rated health than belonging to the group of retirees. Discussion: The heterogeneous socio-demographic and health characteristics of the older working population should be taken into account when examining impacts of employment on health. Failure to account for differences in quality of work may lead to the incorrect assumption that extended employment is beneficial to the health of all workers. If older people are going to be encouraged to work for longer periods of time, beneficial effects need to apply to all working groups. Employers need to ensure adjustments to individual working patterns and environments are made in order to suit the needs of an ageing workforce.

Poor health and early exit from labour force: an analysis using data from Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe Václav Hausenblas May 12, 2011 Abstract Health is considered to be one the main determinants of retirement decision. A majority of empirical studies implements health using self- perceived health status measures. According to the justification hypoth- esis such a method may introduce a bias into estimation, and moreover, this bias may vary from country to country. The aim of this thesis is to make use of a dataset rich in objective measures of health from the second wave of Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe and to put side by side the estimates based on subjective measures as well as IV estimates using more objective variables and thereby to assess the mag- nitude of possible endogeneity and measurement error. It applies these identification methods on the model of early exit from labour force and discusses gender differences and specifics of given EU countries. 1

This thesis examines how patterns of time use change in later life and how the way in which older people use their time is related to well-being. Arguing that maintaining balance in time use concerns not only people of working age but matters for people of all ages, we propose an alternative theoretical framework of life balance. This consists of two conceptual models: The Life Balance Triangle and Multidimensional Life Balance (MLB). Using UK time use data, the thesis demonstrates the empirical applicability of these two models in enhancing our understanding of older people's daily lives. The life balance model, which we built by modifying the theoretical categorisation of time use by Ås (1978) and the work-leisure triangle of Gershuny (2003), identifies and presents alteration in time use across the life course as changes in balance between constraints (committed time) and freedom of choice (discretionary time), controlling for time spent on biological/physiological maintenance (regenerative time). We find the balance shifts towards greater discretionary, and less committed, time in later life, with a significant gender gap. Life stage, which reflects social structure and expectations, rather than biological ageing, was found to be the most influential factor for life balance dynamics. Findings suggest that men may find it more difficult to adjust to life beyond work because of abrupt and greater changes in life balance, which may disrupt their daily time structure. The multidimensional life balance model challenges the assumption of a linear relationship between the level of activity and well-being of older people. Adapting the Alkire-Foster method (Alkire and Foster, 2011), we propose a threshold-based approach that takes the heterogeneity of older people and multidimensionality of daily life into account, and emphasises overall balance in the level of activities across various activity domains. Results show MLB is associated positively with better self-assessed health, suggesting a threshold effect. We also identify the demographic/socio-economic groups more likely to lack MLB, as well as domains in which most people are deficient. The thesis contributes to work-life balance research by moving beyond paid-work centrality, and to ageing research by providing a multidimensional approach to activities and well-being in later life.

My dissertation is composed of an introductory chapter followed by three independent chapters focusing on two themes: health and retirement. The last chapter concludes. After the introductory chapter, the second chapter investigates whether self reported general stress is a mediator in the relationship between socio-economic status (SES) and health. I use a six-year long panel of the Canadian Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics and employ dynamic econometric modelling techniques to study men and women who are major income earners in their families. I find little evidence that general stress is a pathway from SES to health. While the results suggest a strong negative association between stress and health for both men and women, they provide little support to the hypothesis of a significant effect of income on stress, consistent with the direction of the SES-health gradient. The third chapter studies whether self-assessed health status (SAH) contains information about future mortality and morbidity, beyond the information that is contained in standard "observable" characteristics of individuals (including pre-existing diagnosed medical conditions). Using a ten-year span of the Canadian National Population Health Survey, we find evidence that SAH does contain private information for future mortality and morbidity. Moreover, the extra information in SAH is greater at older ages. Our results suggest that a shift from defined benefit to defined contribution pension arrangements may carry with it the cost of exacerbated adverse selection in the market for annuities, especially at older ages. That would make it more difficult for older individuals to insure longevity risk. The fourth chapter looks at whether differences in early retirement pathways are associated with differences in post-retirement outcomes of health, stress and dwelling tenure. I use a 5 ample of men from the Canadian Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, years 1996 to 2004. I find that differences in pre-retirement health indicators (such as self-assessed health and disability), as pathways to early retirement, are likely to be associated with differences in post-retirement health and stress. In addition, the results suggest that "involuntary" retirees (men who may have retired because of health and/or health related coniitions) are more likely to experience worse post-retirement outcomes (in terms of health and stress) than men who retire "voluntarily". Retirement circumstances are found to have no statistically significant effect on dwelling tenure. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

La presente tesi, attraverso l’utilizzo di diverse fonti di dati, sia longitudinali che trasversali, contribuisce alla letteratura esistente in materia di lavoro precario, invecchiamento e discriminazione di genere, fornendo evidenza empirica riguardo le conseguenze in termini di salute e benessere della precarietà, del pensionamento e della leadership femminile nel mercato del lavoro. Il primo capitolo esamina la relazione esistente fra insicurezza sul lavoro, prospettive di reimpiego e disagio psicologico, utilizzando dati cross-country provenienti dalle European Working Conditions Surveys del 2010. Il secondo capitolo è dedicato alla stima dell’effetto causale del pensionamento sull’utilizzo dei servizi sanitari in 10 paesi Europei nel periodo 2004-2013. In particolare, il capitolo approfondisce il tema della riduzione del costo opportunità del tempo libero dopo il pensionamento, che può dare luogo ad aumenti improvvisi nell’utilizzo dei servizi sanitari. Il terzo capitolo, infine, studia la relazione esistente tra leadership femminile, pratiche organizzative a livello aziendale e discriminazione di genere per 30 paesi Europei, considerati nel periodo 1995-2010. / The present dissertation, using both longitudinal and cross-sectional data from different sources, contributes to existing literature on precarious employment, aging and gender discrimination providing empirical evidence on the health and wellbeing outcomes of work-related insecurity, retirement and female leadership across European countries. Chapter 1 examines the relationship among perceived job insecurity, employability and psychological distress in Europe, using cross-country data from the 2010 European Working Conditions Surveys. Chapter 2, using SHARE data (from 2004 to 2013) for 10 European countries, is devoted to the analysis of the (causal) effect of retirement on health care utilization. In particular, it explores the existence of a discontinuous change in health investment at the time of retirement, as suggested by the theory, asking whether this ``puzzling'' jump is associated with the drop in the opportunity cost of time induced by retirement. Chapter 3 investigates the association between female leadership, work organization practices and perceived gender discrimination within firms, using EWCS data for 30 European countries for the period 1995-2010.