Teaching, Teachers Pensions and Retirement Across Recent Cohorts of College Graduate Women

33 Pages Posted: 3 Oct 2016 Last revised: 8 Jan 2023

Date Written: September 2016

Abstract

Labor force participation rates of college-educated women ages 60 to 64 increased by 20 percent (10 percentage points) between 2000 and 2010. One potential explanation for this change stems from the fact that fewer college-educated women in the more recent cohorts were ever teachers. This occupational shift could affect the length of women’s careers because teaching is a profession where workers are covered by defined benefit pensions and, generally, defined benefit pensions allow workers to retire earlier than Social Security. I provide evidence supporting the hypothesis and show that older college-educated women who worked as teachers do not experience increases in labor force participation as large as their counterparts who never taught.

Suggested Citation

Fitzpatrick, Maria Donovan, Teaching, Teachers Pensions and Retirement Across Recent Cohorts of College Graduate Women (September 2016). NBER Working Paper No. w22698, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2846934

Maria Donovan Fitzpatrick (Contact Author)

Cornell University ( email )

Ithaca, NY
United States
607-255-1272 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.human.cornell.edu/bio.cfm?netid=mdf98

NBER ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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