b'AGING IN THE 21ST CENTURYbecause they vary across countries and causeearly retirement windows. In fact, there appearsWorking longer may be associated with longer people to retire early in some countries and lateto be some benefit of retirement to the cognitivelives. Wu et al. (2016) follow the original HRS in others. Their study uses HRS data along withfunctioning of blue collar workers. Possibly thecohort from 1992 until their retirement or death data from HRS sister studies in England and 11options for intellectual stimulation are more lim- over the next 18 years. In the group who say that other European countries. Information on a wordited on blue collar jobs, and retirement may offerhealth was not an important reason for their recall task is used to indicate cognitive ability.more opportunities in this regard. retirement, working an extra year is associated Countries with earlier retirement ages have muchAnother study took a novel approach towith an 11% lower risk of death. Even those who lower cognitive scores than those with workerssorting out cause and effect between retirementsay poor health affected their decision to retire, who stay in the labor force longer.and health by using individuals retirementworking longer is associated with slightly greater Another study uses early retirement offersexpectations to isolate the effect of retirementlongevity.to estimate the effect of retirement on cognitiveon a health index that includes both objective functioning (Coe et al. 2011). Early retirementand subjective measures of health status (InslerRetirement leads to increased windows are defined in HRS as a financial in- 2014). Using HRS data from 1992 through 2010,life satisfaction overall.centive offered at a particular time to encouragethis study finds a beneficial effect of retirement workers to leave a firm. Such offers should beon health status, especially for those who quit independent of an individuals health status sincesmoking. Similarly, Fonseca et al. (2014) useRetirement Satisfactionin general they are only offered to broad groupscross-national variation in pensions to studyHRS can also be used to track trends in retire-of workers, not to individuals. Overall, there isthe effects of retirement on subjective well-beingment satisfaction and to follow individuals to no relationship between the length of retirementand find that, across several countries, retirementsee how retirement satisfaction might change as and cognitive functioning given the condition ofleads to increased life satisfaction overall.we age. An Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI) report shows that in 1998, 60.5% of HRS retirees reported feeling very satisfied with Figure 1-7Trends in percent very satisfied with retirement by age: 1998-2014 retirement (EBRI 2016a). By 2012, this percent-Source: EBRI (2016a). age decreased to 48.6% (Figure 1-7). On the other hand, those reporting being moderately satisfied increased. The share that report being not at 65% all satisfied remains relatively steady over this 60% period at about 10%. Following the same indi-viduals as they age, retirement satisfaction tends 55% to decrease with age. Not surprisingly, those 50% with higher net worth report higher retirement satisfaction than those with lower net worth. 45% Likewise, those in worse health report lower 40% retirement satisfaction, which may help explain the aging effect.35%1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014People aged: 55-64 65-74 75-84 85+34'