Table 1 Description of variables
From: Social and private activity after retirement—substitutes or complements
Formal social activity | includes: -volunteering, indicating respondents who did voluntary or charity work -civic organizations, indicating respondents who have taken part in a political or community-related organization |
Informal social activity | respondents who gave help (personal care or practical household help) to people outside their household |
Private solitary activity | includes: -books’, magazine or newspaper reading -word and number games like crossword puzzles or Sudoku |
Private sociable activity | includes: -sport or social club, indicating respondents who went to a sport, social or other kind of club -educational course, indicating respondents who attended an educational or training course -cards or chess indicating respondents who played cards or games such as chess |
Increase in informal social activity | 1- a respondent, after retirement, started to be engaged in informal help given outside the household 0- a respondent didn’t engage in this activity |
Increase in formal social activity | 1- a respondent, after retirement, started to be engaged in one or both of the activities from this type 0- a person joined one activity but resigned from the second, or didn’t join any of those activities |
Increase in private solitary activity | 1- a person, after retirement, started to be engaged in one or both of the activities from this type 0- a person joined one activity but resigned from the second, or didn’t join any of those activities |
Increase in private sociable activity | 1- a person, after retirement, started to be engaged in one or more of the activities from this type 0- a person engaged in some activities and resigned from some others (the number of activities up-taken versus the number of activities abandoned is considered to decide if there was an increase or not) or didn’t join any of those activities |
Familya | number of family members with whom respondents most often discuss important things |
Friends & acquaintances | number of non-kin with whom respondents most often discuss important things |
Age | difference between year of interview and year of birth |
Females | 0- men 1- women |
Years of education | number of years of education |
Life satisfaction | 0- completely dissatisfied to 10-completely satisfied |
Living in the country | 0- living in a town or city 1- living in the country |
Household size | number of household members |
Income | logaritmized value of income per household member |
Trusting people | 0- can’t be too careful to 10-most people can be trusted |
Praying | 0- respondent who never prays 1- respondent who prays at least sometimes |
Received help | 0- respondent’s household didn’t receive help from another household 1- respondent’s household received informal help (personal care or practical household help) from another household |
Limitations in ADL | count of limitations in Activities of Daily Living — basic self-care tasks |
Limitations in IADL | count of limitations in Instrumental Activities of Daily Living — e.g. shopping or preparing meals |
Limitations | count of limitations in Activities of Daily Living and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living |
Active countries | 1- countries where mean activity after retirement (within the analyzed sample) is higher than mean in the whole sample (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland) 0- other countries (Czech Republic, Estonia, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain) |