Abstract
Promoting participation in productive activities after labour market exit is an important challenge for European policies. Not only society as a whole might profit from an increased investment, but also older people themselves, since participation in a productive activity, such as voluntary work, was shown to improve health and well-being in older ages (Bath and Deeg 2005) – a finding that was also found in the two first waves of SHARE (Siegrist and Wahrendorf 2009a). These results suggest that being engaged in a productive activity after labour market exit helps to cope with the ageing process because valued earlier activities are replaced by new ones, providing opportunities of positive self-experience which in turn strengthens well-being and health. Previous findings, though, show that participation varies considerably according to social position and between different countries (see also Hank 2010).
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Wahrendorf, M., Siegrist, J. (2011). Working Conditions in Mid‐life and Participation in Voluntary Work After Labour Market Exit. In: Börsch-Supan, A., Brandt, M., Hank, K., Schröder, M. (eds) The Individual and the Welfare State. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17472-8_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17472-8_16
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