The interdependence between partners raises considerable interest in the sociology of life course, work, and families. Partner influences play a particularly important role in the work domain, because each partner’s work decisions have profound effects on the couple as a whole. In contrast to previous research, this article pays detailed attention to the role a partner plays in workers’ labour market decisions by analysing the case of early retirement decisions. We hypothesized that partners’ preferences for older workers’ retirement originate from altruism and self-interest. Moreover, we expected that partners influence older workers’ early retirement behaviour via persuasion and pressure. To adequately estimate partners’ and workers’ preferences for the worker’s retirement, we used an instrumental variable approach. This was possible because we collected multi-actor longitudinal data from a large representative sample of older workers and their partners in the Netherlands. The results support that spousal preferences originate in altruism and self-interest and that partners influence workers through persuasion and pressure. Gender differences in origins and mechanisms of partner influence are also discussed.

中文翻译：

---

夫妻社会影响的起源与机制：以退休决策为例

伴侣之间的相互依赖引起了人们对生命历程、工作和家庭的社会学的极大兴趣。伴侣的影响在工作领域中扮演着特别重要的角色，因为每个伴侣的工作决定都会对整个夫妻产生深远的影响。与之前的研究相比，本文通过分析提前退休决策的案例，详细关注合作伙伴在工人劳动力市场决策中的作用。我们假设合作伙伴对老年工人退休的偏好源于利他主义和自身利益。此外，我们预计合作伙伴通过说服和压力影响老年工人的提前退休行为。为了充分估计合作伙伴和员工对员工退休的偏好，我们使用了工具变量方法。这是可能的，因为我们从荷兰老年工人及其合作伙伴的大型代表性样本中收集了多参与者纵向数据。结果支持配偶偏好源于利他主义和自利，伴侣通过说服和压力影响工人。还讨论了伙伴影响的起源和机制方面的性别差异。