Does retirement represent a state of relative prosperity or a time of unanticipated economic hardship? To assess whether individuals are successful in smoothing their well-being across the transition to retirement we analyse measures of relative subjective wellbeing (SWB) in the Australian HILDA...

This study documents (1) the income situation of retired widows, (2) the strategies they use to cope with reduced levels of income, and (3) the effects of reduced income on their health and well-being. A major finding (based on analysis of the Survey of Ageing and Independence) is that almost...

China is one of the largest countries in the world in terms of both geography and population size, with lower economic levels compared to the developed countries, and great regional differences. This paper introduces the rapid demographic changes of the Chinese population and the current...

This study compares and contrasts criteria for determining how individuals cope with adverse life events during the aging process. From a pool of 140 interviews with older men and women who had experienced a significantly stressful life event (either widowhood or involuntary retirement), a...

This paper evaluates the impact of the 1995-1998 Ontario welfare reforms on the standard of living among single mothers. I look at how different measures of single mothers’ consumption vary in response to transfer income shocks. Because welfare is a provincial responsibility in Canada, this...

We estimate a collective household model with survey data on financial satisfaction from the European Community Household Panel. Our estimates suggest that cohabitating individuals enjoy returns to scale in consumption that are towards the larger end of the range of estimates reported in the...

We examine retired Canadians’ subjective survey reports of satisfaction with finances,and with life, relative to the period before retirement.

A substantial body of international research has shown that household expenditure on food and non-durables significantly decreases at the time of retirement -- a finding that is inconsistent with the standard life-cycle model of consumption if retirement is an anticipated event. This fall in...

We examine retired Canadians’ subjective survey reports of satisfaction with finances,and with life, relative to the period before retirement.

Utilizing the 1996 Canadian Food Expenditure survey matched with Canadian Nutrient File, we separate actual food consumption from observed expenditure and test the Permanent Income/Life Cycle Hypothesis on the true consumption data. We find that the lower food expenditure during periods of...