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Early retirement in the Arabian Gulf States and in Kuwait in particular became a public issue before and after the Gulf War. Reports a recent study of Kuwaiti nationals who retired from the Government sector from 1979 to 1989: more than 84 per cent of the sample were 50 years of age and younger; more than 70 per cent of the women and 52 per cent of the men were college graduates; more than 74 per cent of the women and 32 per cent of the males spent less than 25 years in service; and more than 51 per cent of men and 42 per cent of women worked after their retirement. The sample considered early retirement benefits and management‐organizational factors to be the major influences on their early retirement decision and proposed improving the management‐organization factors through training, managerial development, career development, and counselling as means for reducing the outflow of Kuwaiti manpower from the Government sector, and offsetting the early retirement trend.

Factors such as retirement and declining health may trigger older Americans to move into retirement housing. Most mature consumers make this decision in consultation with their family. Understanding the timing and decision‐making process is necessary to properly position and promote retirement housing. A national survey of retirement housing residents found that most moves were prompted by financial considerations, retirement, and health problems. Although most seniors made the final decision to move themselves, children and physicians were influencers. Thus, retirement housing must be promoted to family members and health care workers as well as potential residents.

Retirement: is it the ‘golden years’ or is it relegation to the ‘human scrapheap’? In reality, it may be either, depending on a multitude of factors interrelated in a complex process. This paper presents a model that describes this process and explains the retirement decision in behavioural terms. The model also shows the interaction between environmental, institutional and individual variables; their impact on retirement; and the impact of retirement upon them.

With the development over recent years of Preparation for Retirement (PFR) courses, it has become a matter of concern to evaluate the relevance of their content and method to those who participate. Beveridge and Rives and Siegel suggest that programmes have tended to concentrate too much on information giving, largely on environmental issues like health, finance and housing, to the neglect of problems of psychological adjustment. Gilmore has pointed out that there is no evidence that teaching styles and methodologies appropriate to older people have been given sufficient consideration by course planners.

The purpose of this overview is to provide a brief introduction to the topic of retirement, noting five key issues and directions for future research which are addressed collectively in the compilation of papers that follow: the changing nature of retirement; the need for an interdisciplinary perspective on retirement; the need to look at both individual and organizational perspectives; international variations in contexts and processes; and the need for a broad methodological perspective. The authors then outline and summarize the seven studies included in this special issue, as well as acknowledge those who were instrumental in bringing this special issue to fruition.

The International Journal of Manpower's usual double blind review process was used to select the seven papers included in this special issue. The papers themselves represent a wide variety of designs, methodologies, and analytic strategies used to study retirement. In addition, a wide variety of disciplinary approaches and levels of analyses and perspectives are employed across the seven studies.

The findings of the studies included in this special issue touch on retirement planning and decision making, as well as employer perspectives on the global aging workforce.

Each article includes practical implications with regard to retirement for the country and/or constituents examined in the study.

Taken as a collective, the papers in this special issue help to propel forward in significant ways the study of retirement from an international and interdisciplinary perspective.

The County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 paved the way for employer‐sponsored retirement programmes to be created. One such programme is the Orange County Employees Retirement System. It was implemented in 1945 to provide retirement benefits for public service employees. Since that time, many new developments have resulted in changing the system to better service the members. Those new developments include SB 558, the cancer presumptive bill, AB 1817 affecting disability retirement, AB2841 increasing employer contributions, and AB1937 increasing retirement allowances. Using Orange County as an example, these developments are analysed according to their affects upon employees. The significance of these developments for employers and employees of all companies is to encourage the appropriate action necessary to implement change in a positive way for all members of a retirement scheme.

Following a brief review of research on special early retirement, provides a summary of a recent extensive study by Maule, Cliff and Taylor (in press) and re‐interprets the findings of this study in the context of the development of effective early retirement schemes. Discusses effectiveness in terms of the factors which are important in the decision and how these should be presented, the worries and concerns which people have about early retirement and how these should be addressed, ways of helping people make the decision and the factors at the point of decision that are likely to affect the quality of life in retirement. Considers of the ways in which each of these factors affect different groups of workers and the possibility that retirement schemes can be targeted to be differentially attractive to different groups.

Research shows that having student loan debt in retirement is associated negatively with life satisfaction, suggesting that student debt is a bane of retiree well-being. The rationale for this study is to determine the factors related to owing student debt in retirement, given the adverse effects on the well-being of retired households.

The study utilizes pooled cross-sectional data from the 2015 and 2018 U.S. National Financial Capability Study. The empirical analysis uses a sample of retired Americans aged 65 years and older (N = approximately 8,000) and estimates two-block logistic regression models to examine the effects of demographic, socioeconomic and behavioral factors on student loan indebtedness in retirement. A sensitivity analysis is performed for the subsample of retirees holding student debt for their children's education. Statistical interpretations use odds ratios.

The findings indicate that financial literacy, age, homeownership and high subjective financial knowledge are associated with a low likelihood of holding student loan debt in retirement. However, being Black, having postsecondary education, having difficulty covering expenses, having financially dependent children, having high-risk preferences and spending more than income increase the likelihood of holding student debt in retirement. The ensuing discussion will assist financial planners and educators identify practical ways to shape decisions regarding student loan debt in retirement.

The amount of student loan debt is unavailable in the dataset for analysis. One cannot infer causal relations from the study. The factors examined do not reflect the time the student loan was obtained.

The study focuses on the determinants of student loan indebtedness among retired Americans rather than young adults or older adults on the verge of retirement. The paper enhances the understanding of student loan holdings in the decumulation phase of the life cycle. Many US individuals have low retirement savings from which they draw a retirement income. The more the student debt burdens on retired Americans, the greater the likelihood of outliving their resources and experiencing poverty.

Although saving for retirement is critical, many people are reluctant to contribute money now in anticipation of a future event, namely their retirement. This study aims to investigate the interaction effect between message frame and message appeal on individual preparedness for retirement, specifically in terms of an individual’s willingness to contribute to retirement savings.

Across three studies, the authors show that message frames with a gain-orientation are more persuasive when self-oriented rather than oriented towards socially distant others. In Study 1, the authors use a 2 (gain-loss message frame) × 3 (self, close-other, distant-other message appeal) experimental design with ad copy manipulating the scenarios. In Study 2, the authors replicate and extend Study 1 to validate the findings. In Study 3, the authors overlay life-stage to determine how consumers differ in terms of their willingness to contribute to retirement.

Across the studies the authors find that message frame and message appeal influence consumer preparedness for retirement. The authors investigate these effects in terms of willingness to contribute to retirement savings (Studies 1–3) as well as satisfaction with retirement savings, anticipated retirement enjoyment, positive emotions and negative emotions (Studies 1 and 2).

While a substantive amount of research has been devoted to retirement planning, gaps remain as to the efficacy of communication message strategies on influencing retirement preparedness. This research seeks to contribute towards this literature stream by uncovering the ways in which individuals can be encouraged to contribute towards retirement planning.

The purpose of this study is to find out the effect of consumption tax on savings behavior especially on the people who are close to their retirement.

The authors analyze the response in spending and retirement saving using a difference-in-differences regression methodology. The authors use the year since the Public Provident Fund (PPF) enrollment date for each individual as a random assignment to identify the service tax policy's causal impact. Therefore, this variable is a continuous variable defined as an individual's age until the end of the restrictions when people can withdraw money from their retirement savings account PPF without any penalty. The treatment variable is the service tax shock (increase in service tax) that happened effective 1st April 2015.

The authors find a significant effect of a change in the service tax rate on individuals' spending and PPF saving behavior. On average, individuals lower their consumption by about 14% and increase their PPF savings by 16% in response to the increase in the service tax rate. The authors find substantial heterogeneity in effect across different types of individuals. The effect is more pronounced for people closer to their retirement and needy people (defined as individuals with low traditional savings account balances).

The authors studied the effect of consumption tax on one category of savings (PPF) only. There are other savings instruments available in India. The data for those were not available to us.

This paper not only throws light on the consumption and savings behaviour of the individuals, but will also help the policy maker for framing appropriate fiscal policy.

Using a unique and proprietary data from a large bank in India, the authors analyze the effect of a tax policy change on households' consumption and retirement savings behavior. The authors find that households reduce their consumption by 14% and increase their voluntary retirement savings (Public Provident Fund aka PPF) by 16% in response to an increase in the service tax policy. Individuals close to their retirement age (55 years of age and above) and without any withdrawal restrictions from their PPF account tend to reduce their expenditures more and save more. Individuals with financial constraints and withdrawal restrictions do not reduce their expenditures significantly. To the best of the authors’ knowledge no study was done on this.