Cognition, Health, Well-being and Labor Market Participation of Older Indonesians

Firman Witoelar, Australian National University

Using data from the multiple rounds of the Indonesia Family Life Survey, the paper explores the relationship between labor market participation and cognition, health, and well-being of older Indonesian. The paper study the pattern of labor force participation of individuals aged 45 and above including job sectors, occupations, hours worked, and job characteristics and investigate the relationship to cognition, health, and well-being. Differences between gender, urban-rural, and education are examined as will the differences between agricultural and non-agricultural work, and pension-eligible and non-eligible employment. Taking advantage of the panel dimension of the data and using eligibility to receive pension payment as an instrumental variable the paper uses the first-differenced IV approach to look at the effects of retirement of cognition, health outcomes and other measures of well-being.

Keywords: Health and Morbidity, Older Adults and Intergenerational Relations, Population and Development, Longitudinal studies

See extended abstract.