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  5. Older Workers and Retirement: Part 2
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Older Workers and Retirement: Part 2

Paper Session

Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022 3:45 PM - 5:45 PM (EST)

Hosted By: Labor and Employment Relations Association
  • Chair: Teresa Ghilarducci, New School for Social Research

Older Workers Need Not Apply? Ageist Language in Job Ads and Age Discrimination in Hiring

Ian Burn
,
University of Liverpool
Patrick Button
,
Tulane University
Luis Felipe Munguia Corella
,
University of California-Irvine
David Neumark
,
University of California-Irvine

Abstract

We study the relationships between ageist stereotypes - as reflected in the language used in job ads - and age discrimination in hiring, exploiting the text of job ads and differences in callbacks to older and younger job applicants from a resume (correspondence study) field experiment (Neumark, Burn, and Button, 2019). Our analysis uses methods from computational linguistics and machine learning to directly identify, in a field-experiment setting, ageist stereotypes that underlie age discrimination in hiring. The methods we develop provide a framework for applied researchers analyzing textual data, highlighting the usefulness of various computer science techniques for empirical economics research. We find evidence that language related to stereotypes of older workers sometimes predicts discrimination against older workers. For men, our evidence points to age stereotypes about all three categories we consider – health, personality, and skill – predicting age discrimination, and for women, age stereotypes about personality. In general, the evidence is much stronger for men, and our results for men are quite consistent with the industrial psychology literature on age stereotypes.

Are Older Workers Capable of Delaying Retirement?

Laura Quinby
,
Boston College
Gal Wettstein
,
Boston College

Abstract

Disability-free life expectancy had been rising continuously in the United States until 2010, suggesting working longer as a solution for those financially unprepared for retirement. Reforms such as the increase in the Social Security Full Retirement Age have been predicated on the potential of extended working lives to keep retirees whole. However, recent developments suggest that growth in working life expectancy has stalled, especially for minorities and those with less education. This paper uses data from the National Vital Statistics System, the America Community Survey, and the National Health Interview Survey to assess how recent trends in institutionalization, physical impediments to work, and mortality have affected working life expectancy for men and women age 50 today, by race and education. Preliminary results suggest that working life expectancy has continued to modestly increase for high-education individuals of all races and for low-education Black women. However, no progress has been observed for low-education whites of all genders and Black men. As a result, large shares of those still working at age 62 will be incapable of working even two more years, particularly Black men and those with below-median education.

How Job Displacement Affects Work and Social Security Claiming at Older Ages

Aida Farmand
,
New School for Social Research

Abstract

This study examines the evidence on the post-displacement employment, and earnings experiences of displaced older workers with various characteristics in order to measure how the incidence and cost of displacement have changed over time. Using data from the Current Population Survey's Displaced Worker Supplements I present new estimates of how job loss affects earnings, reemployment probabilities and the decision to leave the labor force for workers displaced close to retirement age. I find that displaced older workers face worse employment prospects than displaced primed-age workers and displaced older workers who do find a job typically experience larger wage losses. Moreover preliminary results indicate that displaced older workers are 40 percent more likely to claim social security benefits before the Full Retirement Age compared to their counterparts that have not experienced job loss.

Discussant(s)
Perihan Saygin
,
University of Florida
Siavash Radpour
,
New School for Social Research
Richard W. Johnson
,
Urban Institute
JEL Classifications
  • J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor
  • J6 - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers