The Evolution of Retirement: An American Economic History, 1880-1990

by Dora L. Costa

Overview

Winner of the 1998 Paul A. Samuelson Award given by TIAA-CREF, The Evolution of Retirement is the first comprehensive economic history of retirement in America. With life expectancies steadily increasing, the retirement rate of men over age 64 has risen drastically. Dora L. Costa looks at factors underlying this increase and shows the dramatic implications of her findings for both the general public and the U.S. government. Using statistical, and demographic concepts, Costa sheds light on such important topics as rising incomes and retirement, work and disease, the job prospects of older workers, living arrangements of the elderly, the development of a retirement lifestyle, and pensions and politics.

"[Costa's] major contribution is to show that, even without Social Security and Medicare, retirement would have expanded dramatically."—Robert J. Samuelson, New Republic

"An important book on a topic which has become popular with historians and is of major significance to politicians and economists."—Margaret Walsh, Business History

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226116082
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	06/22/1998
Series:	National Bureau of Economic Research Series on Long-Term Factors in Economic Development
Edition description:	1
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Dora L. Costa is professor of economics at the University of California, Los Angeles; associate director of the California Population Research Center; and a research associate and director of the Cohort Studies Working Group at the NBER.

Table of Contents

Preface
1: The Problem of Old Age
2: The Evolution of Retirement
3: Income and Retirement
4: Work and Disease
5: The Older Worker
6: Displacing the Family
7: The Rise of the Leisured Class
8: Pensions and Politics
9: Looking to the Future
App. A: Union Army Pensions and Civil War Records
References
Name Index
Subject Index

What People are Saying About This

Peter Diamond

By placing the trend toward earlier retirement in its long-term historical context, this lucid book will have an imporatnt impact on the dabate on retirement policy.
— Peter Diamond, Institute Professor, MIT

Editorial Reviews

Overviews the economic history of retirement in the US and looks at factors underlying the increase in the retirement rate of men over age 64. Demonstrates that the rise of retirement is the result of a culmination of historical trends initiated more than a century ago, not the consequence of abrupt social or institutional change. Looks at the links between rising incomes and retirement, work and disease, job prospects of older workers, living arrangements of the elderly, the development of a retirement lifestyle, and pensions and politics. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

...Costa's central point [is that] retirement's expansion transcends government policy. It has a power all its own.
— The New Republic.

Robert J. Samuelson