Objectives: This study investigates the role of the partner in the retirement decision-making process. It determines the extent to which the support and intentions of partners regarding early retirement influence each other, and which partner dominates.
Methods: Data have been collected directly from 1,052 older employees working in Dutch industry and trade, and from their spouses. Because it is conceptualized that husbands' and wives' retirement intentions/support are related in a reciprocal way, a two-stage least squares regression analysis (2SLS) is used to establish the specified mutual relationships.
Results: Intentions and support of both partners concerning retirement are strongly related. The results of the 2SLS suggest that early retirement of one of the spouses is the result of influence processes within the household, and that early retirement can be considered, to a certain extent, a household decision. This holds for married men's early retirement in particular. There seems to be no direct causal relationship between a couple's own decision making with respect to early retirement and the retirement behavior of a couple's social network.
Discussion: Future research on the retirement decision-making process should focus on the family unit rather than simply on the individual worker, and be extended to different types of retirement behavior.