Myth of the Industrial Scrap Heap: A Revisionist View of Turn-of-the- Century American Retirement / Susan B. Carter, Richard Sutch.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Carter, Susan B.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Sutch, Richard.

Series:

Historical Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. h0073.

NBER historical working paper series no. h0073

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Retirement--United States.

Retirement.

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Myth of the Industrial Scrap Heap

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1995.

Cambridge, Massachussetts : National Bureau of Economic Research, [1995]

Summary:

Using the census survival method to calculate net flows across employment states between 1900 and 1910, we find that approximately one-fifth of all men who reached the age of 55 eventually retired before their death. Many of these retirees appear to have planned their withdrawal from paid employment by accumulating assets, becoming self-employed, and then liquidating their assets to provide a stream of income to finance consumption in old age. This `modern' retirement behavior, we argue, has important implications for the economic history of capital and labor markets, of saving and investment, of insurance and pensions, and of the family economy.

Notes:

Print version record

October 1995.