The Evolution of Retirement

by Costa, Dora L.

• ISBN13: 9780226116099
• ISBN10: 0226116093
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-03-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Winner of the 1998 Paul A. Samuelson Award given by TIAA-CREF,The Evolution of Retirementis the first comprehensive economic history of retirement in America. With life expectancies steadily increasing, the retirement rate of men over age 64 has risen drastically. Dora L. Costa looks at factors underlying this increase and shows the dramatic implications of her findings for both the general public and the U.S. government. Using statistical, and demographic concepts, Costa sheds light on such important topics as rising incomes and retirement, work and disease, the job prospects of older workers, living arrangements of the elderly, the development of a retirement lifestyle, and pensions and politics. "[Costa's] major contribution is to show that, even without Social Security and Medicare, retirement would have expanded dramatically."--Robert J. Samuelson,New Republic "An important book on a topic which has become popular with historians and is of major significance to politicians and economists."--Margaret Walsh,Business History

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
The Problem of Old Age	1	(5)
The Evolution of Retirement	6	(26)
Income and Retirement	32	(28)
Work and Disease	60	(25)
The Older Worker	85	(21)
Displacing the Family	106	(27)
The Rise of the Leisured Class	133	(27)
Pensions and Politics	160	(28)
Looking to the Future	188	(9)
Appendix A: Union Army Pensions and Civil War Records	197	(16)
References	213	(14)
Name Index	227	(4)
Subject Index	231