European Policy Analysis Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2016 | Page 73

European Policy Analysis

specific skills employed in the current work
process, how the work is organized, how the
individual interacts with other employees.
As Bloom, Canning, and Fink (2010) noted,
the transfer of the manual employee to a less
physically demanding position improves
the objective productivity indicators as well
as the subjectively perceived level of work
productivity. The aspect of ergonomics as a
critical factor in the decision to retire as it
influence employee’s health and job attitudes
was presented in the study of Schwerha et
al. (2011). Conen, Henkens, and Schippers
(2012) also noted that productivity depends
on the physical and cognitive abilities.
Physical strength is particularly needed for
manual labor and unskilled jobs.

The human capital of an employee,
which is defined as the skills to perform a
job, is a direct measure of the productivity of
work. Older age employees accumulate their
experience and their specific human capital
increases significantly (Karpinska, Henkens,
and Schippers 2013).

Pagán (2013) shows that nondisabled
50+ workers have the highest levels of
overall job satisfaction, whereas limited
disabled workers report the lowest ones. The
author stresses the fact that for the limited
disabled sample, the main determinants of
the overall job satisfaction are the domains
“recognition,” for the nondisabled sample,
the domain “salary adequate”.

Summarizing, the institutional
employment protection and working
conditions as well as organizational strategies
can shape up the norms that influence the
population decision in the labor market
to work or retire. Among employment
protection factors are: favorable employment
protection legislation aspects as longer
notice of termination, severance payment,
additional protection form dismissal, and
others. Among working condition factors
are: control over work time, occupational

status, (in)adequate awards, self-assessment
of health and fatigue, physical workload,
job control and participation, and others.
And organizational strategies: employer's
attitude,
antidiscrimination
policies,
investments in human capital as a base of
productivity, job adjustment measures.

Data and Methods

F

or the analysis of the factors
influencing the decision to extend
employment or to retire after the
retirement age, the Central and Eastern
European countries were selected because
of the following reasons: first, their similar
historical development as former socialist
states, although as Bohle and Greskovits
(2007) show, the development of capitalism
forms in such countries was different, and
second, due to the advantages of comparative
analysis providing more robust results based
on the data from several national cases.

The research question is: What
are the factors that have an impact on the
decision of population to work or retire with
regard to the employment policy?

The meta-analysis of the documents
of the European Foundation for the
Improvement of Living and Working
Conditions (Feifs et al. 2013) and analyses
of the data ESS5 (2010), Eurobarometer 76.2
(Sept–Oct 2011) was applied.

The combined analysis the data of
ESS5 and Eurobarometer 76.2 allows us to
compare different sources and leads to a
better understanding of the policy impact
for people decision to work or retire, after
the retirement age. The analysis was not
carried out according to the age groups—the
entire society was taken into consideration,
since there was a presumption that aging is a
long-term process and the attitude of all the
members of the society is important since
each one of them will face the necessity to

73