[en] BACKGROUND: While prolonged labour market participation becomes increasingly important in ageing societies, evidence on the impacts of entering or exiting work beyond age 65 on cognitive functioning is scarce.
METHODS: We use data from two large population-representative data sets from South Korea and the USA to investigate and compare the effects of the labour market (re-)entry and exit by matching employment and other confounder trajectories prior to the exposure. We chose the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (N=1872, 2006-2020) for its exceptionally active labour participation in later life and the Health and Retirement Study (N=4070, 2006-2020) for its growing inequality among US older adults in labour participation. We use the matching difference-in-differences (DID) method, which allows us to make causal claims by reducing biases through matching.
RESULTS: We find general positive effects of entering the labour market in South Korea (DID estimate: 0.653, 95% CI 0.167 to 1.133), while in the USA such benefit is not salient (DID estimate: 0.049, 95% CI -0.262 to 0.431). Exiting the late-life labour market leads to cognitive decline in both South Korea (DID estimate: -0.438, 95% CI -0.770 to -0.088) and the USA (DID estimate: -0.432, 95% CI -0.698 to -0.165).
CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that Korean participants cognitively benefited from late-life labour market participation, while US participants did not. Differences in participant characteristics and reasons for labour market participation may have led to the differential findings. We found the negative effects of exiting the late-life labour force in both countries.
Research center :
Integrative Research Unit: Social and Individual Development (INSIDE) > PEARL Institute for Research on Socio-Economic Inequality (IRSEI)
Disciplines :
Public health, health care sciences & services Special economic topics (health, labor, transportation...) Sociology & social sciences
Author, co-author :
KIM, Jung Hyun ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Social Sciences (DSOC) > Socio-Economic Inequality
Muniz-Terrera, Graciela ; Department of Social Medicine, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, USA ; Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
H2020 - 803239 - CRISP - Cognitive Aging: From Educational Opportunities to Individual Risk Profiles
Funders :
H2020 European Research Council Osteopathic Heritage Foundation Union Européenne [BE]
Funding text :
This work was supported by the European Research Council (grant agreement no. 803239, to Anja K. Leist). The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIAU01AG009740). The Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA) data are provided by Korea Employment Information Service (KEIS); the study is funded by the Korean Ministry of Labor. Dr Muniz-Terrera acknowledges the support of the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation through funding for the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation Ralph S. Licklider, D.O., Research Endowment in the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine.
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