Willingness towards and the Factors Influencing Delayed Retirement

Abstract: Extending the retirement age is becoming an inevitable trend given the extension of the population’s life expectancy, the need to reduce the financial burden of pensions, the increase in the utilization rate of human capital, the impetus to alleviate labor market shortages, and other social problems. Increasing numbers of countries are beginning to impose extended retirement policies. For instance, the United States, South Korea, Canada and the Nordic countries, among others, have all taken measures to delay retirement. However, the general social recognition is not high. The age of the elderly, education level and individual lifestyle have a significant impact on policies of delayed retirement age. A situation of severe aging puts the future pension system at risk, based on the interests of the country, delayed retirement can help to maximize human capital and relieve a country’s financial pressure. From an individual perspective, extending the retirement age may reduce provisions for elderly people. This study, based on the previous literature review, conducted a survey of people in Halmstad to analyze local citizens’ perception of delayed retirement and the influencing factors behind this. The results indicate that willingness for delayed retirement among the people studied is not very high, with reasons varying across different types of respondents.