Empirical Research Paper

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Abstract

        This paper examines and attempts to provide an analytical response associated to the proposed question of Who Retires and Why. Retirement is affected by an individual’s income, post-retirement benefits, and other characteristics such as age and number of children. These factors are the determinants of an individual’s ability to retire at later or earlier stages in his or her life. The overall effect of these variables can be seen in a model illustrating the causations for retirement and at what stages of life.  

Introduction

        “Retired” is a status at which many individuals in the workforce hope to one day attain. Such a status allows that given individual to partake and enjoy the simple things in life, however, there are many inevitable factors that prohibit the retirement process entirely. Retirement is a road that crosses paths between a self-sufficient payrolls due to proper allocated funding in retirement accounts, or it can be seen as a rough patch that lacks the proper sustainable funding for the years to come.

            This topic was of interest to me because of the personal connection I have with the retirement process. My father retired in 2010 and my mother will be retiring this summer. This being said, I have heard the countless calls to credit unions and the social security administration to ensure that funds are allocated and sufficient for the remainder of their lives and if there need be any adjustments prior to their retirement. This insight inspired me to delve further into the complexity of one who wishes to retire and how such a feat is possible.

        This paper consists three main parts: a literature review of my collected data economic articles, an empirical analysis of the data, and a finalizing conclusion on the report. The literature review features a model and report that hypothesizes the reasons people retire. The empirical analysis examines many variables and dummy variables, all of which are someone contributive to the relationship of who retires and for what reasons do these individuals seek retirement. Lastly, the conclusion produces a unifying statement of the collective view of the prior two aspects discussed.

Literature Review

        The research of this paper is extended to the Current Population Survey (CPS) of individuals who have quit or retired from their positions between the set period of 2010 and 2012. I opted to drop the age of individuals who were 30 and below, this given that I found the research to be indicative of individuals who have had close to 10 year in the field, and obviously those who exceed the 10 year estimation. The regression is broken down into the following: age of retired persons, number of children, income from government regulated assistance (i.e. Social Security Income), and (include other variable).