Early retirement in an international perspective II: The international study.

Initially this article describes the development of disability pension and early retirement in the ages of forty and up till ordinary pensionable ages in nine industrialized countries from the year of 1965 to 1980. During the period there are rising parts of the populations in these pension forms in the countries. The background of this development is, however, somewhat unclear. The following explaining factors are amongst others taken up in the article: A growing sickness, a rising unemployment and especially among the rather old an increased tendency to withdraw from the labor market (for example depending on better pension benefits). The two last mentioned factors are, however, more probable than the first one because of lower mortality rates in the countries under the studied period. Finally the article is concluded with an example of a preparatory suggestion to solve the involved problems in the now existing pension schemes by knitting the pension payments to more productive ages in the future.