Decision Making on Early Retirement, 1965-1969

This study, designed by the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, and the Michigan Health and Social Security Research Institute, attempted to identify factors that weighed most heavily in the decision to retire voluntarily. Survey questions investigated attitudes toward employment (including positive or negative evaluation of income earned and of the kind of work done) as well as the evaluation of conditions anticipated under retirement (including satisfaction or dissatisfaction with expected retirement income and appreciation or dislike of leisure). These core items were supplemented with an assessment of situations and attitudes of respondents who were already retired. Part 1 includes data from 1,123 workers in the automobile industry, interviewed in 1967. In Part 2, data from Part 1 are merged with information obtained from 943 auto workers reinterviewed in 1969. The auto workers sample was chosen for its relative homogeneity and recourse to expanded retirement benefits. All respondents in this sample were aged 58-61, members of United Auto Workers, and employed at four automobile companies located in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Part 3 contains data from a cross-section sample of private households, included in this study in an attempt to broaden the investigation by placing the auto workers sample in correlation with a nationally representative sample, diverse in age, income, occupation, and retirement provisions. SURVEY OF CONSUMER FINANCES, 1966 (ICPSR 7446) provided data for 2,419 households, and information about another 1,228 households was obtained from SURVEY OF CONSUMER ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR, SUMMER 1966 (ICPSR 3620). Demographic information includes age, sex, race, marital status, level of education, and religious preference.