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Effect of Volunteering and Pensions on Subjective Wellbeing of Elderly–are there Cross-Country Differences?

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Abstract

We investigate the effect of volunteering and pensions on subjective wellbeing (SWB) of elderly using wave 6 of Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). This is the first study to consider volunteering and pensions simultaneously as a determinant of SWB among elderly across countries. We find that the effect of volunteering on SWB varies widely across countries. In some countries both effects are comparable, in other countries pensions have a larger effect on SWB. In general, effects are larger in South and East. High European pensions may be unsustainable in the long run–we argue that promotion of volunteering is one way to increase elderly subjective wellbeing amidst tightening budgets. The study is cross-sectional and correlational–we do not claim causality.

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Notes

  1. For elaboration and review of benefits of volunteering see Wilson (2012b), Anderson et al. (2014).

  2. A standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, it was later called the Scholastic Assessment Test.

  3. Say as measured by per capita gross domestic product. In Europe, in general, East and South are less developed, and West and North are more developed.

  4. Purchasing power parity (PPP) measures prices in different places using a common good or goods to contrast the real purchasing power between different currencies. PPP produces an exchange rate that equals the price of the basket of goods at one location over the price of the basket of goods at a different location.

  5. Factor analysis is a data reduction method that combines multiple variables into a single variable based on correlations–variables with higher correlations receive more weight. For examples see Senlier et al. (2009), Proctor (2006). Per CASP and factor analysis see Kim et al. (2015).

  6. Per OLS and discrete models see Gujarati (2002).

  7. Also, pensions or volunteering in some countries have relatively strong impact, and hence, having same scales for both variables (standardized coefficients) makes results unreadable because in some cases a variable has a very strong impact, close to 1 std. dev, and hence, smaller effects for the variable are all visually squeezed next to zero line.

  8. Say as measured by per capita gross domestic product. In Europe, in general, East and South are less developed, and West and North are more developed.

  9. For which we do not have an explanation.

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Acknowledgements

This paper uses data from SHARE Wave 6 (https://doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w6.700), see Börsch-Supan et al. (2013) for methodological details. The SHARE data collection has been funded by the European Commission through FP5 (QLK6-CT-2001-00360), FP6 (SHARE-I3: RII-CT-2006-062193, COMPARE: CIT5-CT-2005-028857, SHARELIFE: CIT4-CT-2006-028812), FP7 (SHARE-PREP: GA N°211909, SHARE-LEAP: GA N°227822, SHARE M4: GA N°261982) and Horizon 2020 (SHARE-DEV3: GA N°676536, SERISS: GA N°654221) and by DG Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion. Additional funding from the German Ministry of Education and Research, the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, the U.S. National Institute on Aging (U01_AG09740-13S2, P01_AG005842, P01_AG08291, P30_AG12815, R21_AG025169, Y1-AG-4553-01, IAG_BSR06-11, OGHA_04-064, HHSN271201300071C) and from various national funding sources is gratefully acknowledged (see www.share-project.org).

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Narodowe Centrum Nauki (PL) (2016/21/B/HS4/03058).

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  1. Rutgers, Camden, NJ, 08102, USA

    Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn

  2. Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, Długa 44/50 St, Warsaw, 00-241, Poland

    Leszek Morawski

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Okulicz-Kozaryn, A., Morawski, L. Effect of Volunteering and Pensions on Subjective Wellbeing of Elderly–are there Cross-Country Differences?. Applied Research Quality Life 16, 1943–1959 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-020-09849-8

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