Which Forms of Capital Play a Role in Retirement Decision-Making?

The prominence of prolonging working careers in European policies raises a need for a better understanding of the factors shaping the actual retirement timing. This paper applies the theory of Bourdieu’s capitals as a framework for understanding how resources (economic, social, and cultural capital, including their dimensions) impact retirement behaviour over time. The presented study uses panel data from SHARE to examine how forms of capital help older workers to keep working for three consecutive time points. The results show that the wider community social capital as well as human, health and digital capital (domains of cultural capital) indeed help older adults to work longer. The effect of other forms of capital became negligible after including relevant control variables, and all the findings are robust irrespective of the used time span. Moreover, the variability of the European context is reflected in separate models for four regions, which identified several context-specific distinctions. Generally, Bourdieu’s framework remains valid in the current situation of population ageing and the digitalisation of economies. The paper argues that policymakers should reflect on the inequalities in resources when forming measures enabling longer careers for those who can work and offering alternative options for those facing significant barriers.