Residential Mobility in the Second Half of Life: The Role of Family-Related Transitions and Retirement

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of entry into retirement and family-related transitions on residential mobility among elderly people living in Germany. We use data of the German Socio-Economic Panel and apply event-history techniques to examine the risk of moving to another home among women and men aged 50–90 in the years 1992–2010. The analysis includes about 15,600 individuals who were living in multiple-person households at age 50, as well as about 1,500 people who were living in single households. Our study suggests that residential mobility during the second half of life is an increasingly important issue, as the time spent in retirement is becoming longer due to gains in life expectancy and as later birth cohorts are more prone to moving than earlier generations. The results show that the risk of moving increases in response to changes in family life, such as the formation of a new partnership or the dissolution of a union due to separation or the death of a spouse. The risk of moving is also high among people who have left the labor market, and particularly among women who have experienced a deterioration in their health status.