Catalogue no. 75-511-XIE New Frontiers of Research on Retirement Leroy O. Stone (Editor in Chief) How to obtain more information Specific inquiries about this product and related statistics or services should be directed to: Unpaid Work Analysis Division, Analytical Studies Branch, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0T6 (telephone: (613) 951-9752). For information on the wide range of data available from Statistics Canada, you can contact us by calling one of our toll-free numbers. You can also contact us by e-mail or by visiting our website. National inquiries line 1 800 263-1136 National telecommunications device for the hearing impaired 1 800 363-7629 Depository Services Program inquiries 1 800 700-1033 Fax line for Depository Services Program 1 800 889-9734 E-mail inquiries [email protected] Website www.statcan.ca Ordering information This product, catalogue no. 75-511-XIE, is published occasionally in electronic format at a price of CAN$49.00 per issue. To obtain a single issue, visit our website at www.statcan.ca and select Our Products and Services. This product is also available as a standard printed publication at a price of CAN$65.00 per issue. The following additional shipping charges apply for delivery outside Canada: Single issue United States CAN$6.00 Other countries CAN$10.00 All prices exclude sales taxes. The printed version of this publication can be ordered • by phone (Canada and United States) 1 800 267-6677 • by fax (Canada and United States) 1 877 287-4369 • by e-mail [email protected] • by mail Statistics Canada Finance Division R.H. Coats Bldg., 6th Floor 120 Parkdale Avenue Ottawa, ON K1A 0T6 • In person from authorised agents and bookstores. Standards of service to the public Statistics Canada is committed to serving its clients in a prompt, reliable and courteous manner and in the official language of their choice. To this end, the Agency has developed standards of service which its employees observe in serving its clients. To obtain a copy of these service standards, please contact Statistics Canada toll free at 1 800 263-1136. The service standards are also published on www.statcan.ca under About Statistics Canada > Providing services to Canadians. Statistics Canada Unpaid Work Analysis Division New Frontiers of Research on Retirement Leroy O. Stone (Editor in Chief) Published by authority of the Minister responsible for Statistics Canada © Minister of Industry, 2006 All rights reserved. Use of this product is limited to the licensee and its employees. The product cannot be reproduced and transmitted to any person or organization outside of the licensee’s organization. Reasonable rights of use of the content of this product are granted solely for personal, corporate or public policy research, or educational purposes. This permission includes the use of the content in analyses and the reporting of results and conclusions, including the citation of limited amounts of supporting data extracted from the data product in these documents. These materials are solely for non-commercial purposes. In such cases, the source of the data must be acknowledged as follows: Source (or “Adapted from”, if appropriate): Statistics Canada, name of product, catalogue, volume and issue numbers, reference period and page(s). Otherwise, users shall seek prior written permission of Licensing Services, Client Services Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1A 0T6. March 2006 Catalogue no. 75-511-XIE ISBN 0-660-19578-X Catalogue no. 75-511-XPE ISBN 0-660-19575-5 Frequency: Occasional Ottawa La version française de cette publication est disponible sur demande (no 75-511-XIF au catalogue). Note of appreciation Canada owes the success of its statistical system to a long-standing partnership between Statistics Canada, the citizens of Canada, its businesses and governments. Accurate and timely statistical information could not be produced without their continued cooperation and goodwill. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data New frontiers of research on retirement Available also in French under title: Les nouvelles frontières de recherche au sujet de la retraite. Available also via Internet. ISBN 0‑660‑19575‑5(paper) ISBN 0‑660‑19579‑8(HTML) ISBN 0‑660‑19578‑X(PDF) CS75‑511‑XPE CS75‑511‑XIE 1. Retirement – Canada. 2. Retirement – Social aspects – Canada. 3. Retirement – Economic aspects – Canada. 4. Retirement – Canada – Statistics. I. Stone, Leroy, O. II. Statistics Canada. Unpaid Work Analysis Division. III. Title: New Frontiers of Research on Retirement. HQ1063.2 C3 N48 2006 306.3’8’0971 C2006‑988020‑4 ii Preface The baby boom generation has caused fundamental changes in every social institution that has been touched by its maturation. The social institution of retirement will be no exception. Those looking at the evolution of our society expect that the wave of retirements that the baby boom generation is about to unleash will trigger some key institutional and cultural changes. What adjustments will be needed in consequence of this wave of retirements? Corporate and community leaders and researchers will be giving increasing attention to this question in the years ahead. This book has been designed to contribute to the basic information that Canadian leaders and researchers will need when they begin to devote much more time and resources to these adjustments. The book aims to stimulate thinking about aspects of retirement that have tended to be outside the main focus of the research literature, but which will likely receive much greater attention in the future. Among these aspects are the following: • social aspects of the emergence of a large number of people who form a substantial proportion of the adult population and whose length of time in retirement will be as long as that of a generation, roughly 25 years • women’s retirement from the paid work force • family dynamics and retirement • retirement processes among people with no career job as conventionally defined • bringing unpaid productive work into scope as a dimension of retirement‑related behavior • the increasing complexity in the pathways people take as they transit to the stage where they cease doing productive work • the emergence of new vulnerable groups, and shifts in the relative sizes of component sub‑groups of the vulnerable population, as a result of major changes in the economic and policy environments. Statistics Canada, Catalogue no. 75‑511‑XIE iii Preface Since the intent is to focus on some of these particular issues, it is necessary to exclude some of the major foci of existing research literature on retirement. These include impacts of wealth and wealth accrual, effects on the timing of retirement of government social security programs and related rules about access to certain kinds of income, impacts of pension eligibility and the evolution of pension coverage and pension systems, and how certain institutional rules about access to disability income and unemployment insurance payments affect retirement. This book showcases Statistics Canada’s contributions to the provision of information pertinent to the development of useful knowledge concerning retirement and other later‑life transitions. For decades its pensions section has produced widely used information in this field, and it is now joined by the several surveys that have stimulated relevant analyses, especially the General Social Survey and the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, and most recently by the commencement of work on pension satellite accounts related to the system of national accounts. A large part of the book is devoted to scientific papers based on Statistics Canada’s data and which require substantial conceptual and statistical innovations that illustrate the usefulness of our data. In developing this focus, we have received important collaboration from L’institut de la statistique du Québec dating back to its major role in our 2003 Symposium on New Issues in Retirement. I hope that the book will provide good value to present and future cohorts of students, teachers, researchers and policy analysts in the private and public sectors. I hope that it will find repeated use in classroom lectures, among reading assignments, as a source of support for MA and PhD thesis development, and in the analysis and design of policies in the private and public sectors in Canada. While this book provides a Canadian perspective, I hope it is relevant in some other countries where leaders and scholars are becoming increasingly aware of the issues related to the social institution of retirement. Leroy O. Stone, December 16, 2005 iv Statistics Canada, Catalogue no. 75‑511‑XIE About the authors Suzanne Asselin – Economist, Institut de la statistique du Québec. She has focused her work on the characteristics of the labour force, and on older workers and retirement. Bob Baldwin – Senior Associate of Informetrica Ltd. and an Adjunct Research Professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University. He was most recently the Director of Social and Economic Policy at Canadian Labour Congress until 2005. He is a director of PSP Investments and a former member and chair of the Canada Pension Plan Advisory Board. Claude Castonguay played a major role in the establishment of the Quebec Pension Plan, the Caisse de depôts et placements du Québec, and the private and public pension plan legislation. As minister of social affairs, he was responsible for a major reform of the Quebec health and social services systems. He recently published Mémoires d’un révolutionnaire tranquille (2005). Angela Colantonio – Saunderson Family Chair in Acquired Brain Injury Research at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and is Associate Professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on life course issues of older persons and of persons aging with neurological disability. Nancy Conroy – President of the Conroy Group Inc., is a Professional Retirement Planner, and the author of: retirement planning websites LifePlan and LifeScape, as well as The Retirement Literature: An Annotated Bibliography 2005 (9th edition).