Subjective Well-Being and Retirement

Michelle Pannor Silver, University of Chicago

By exploring whether economic, social and personal resources from childhood, early adulthood and later adulthood help explain subjective well-being before and after retirement, this paper extends prior research. Using a sub-sample of individuals from the Health and Retirement Study who made the transition to retirement between 1994 and 2006, this study analyzes not only whether the influence of factors from three different points in the life course on subjective well-being differs before and after retirement but also contrasts the experiences of men and women. Preliminary findings suggest that consideration of factors from different points in the life course contributes to a better understanding of subjective well-being and retirement.