This report by Diana Warren compares key characteristics of retirement for men and women including reasons for retiring, transitions to retirement, life satisfaction, the effect of the presence of a spouse or partner and financial security. The report presents new findings about differences in life in retirement for single and partnered women, as well as...

The HILDA Survey provides a new type of social statistics for Australia – longitudinal panel statistics describing the ways in which people’s lives are changing. In this report Bruce Headey, Diana Warren and Glenys Harding provide information and statistical tables covering the four main areas of HILDA: households and family life; incomes and wealth; employment...

Hielke Buddelmeyer and Roger Wilkins describe the dynamics of smoking behaviour in Australia, using HILDA data to track individuals’ smoking behaviour over the period 2001 to 2003, during which time smoking ban initiatives in Queensland, Victoria and the Northern Territory came into effect. They exploit this variation over time and across states to assess the...

In Policy Research Paper 26, the authors explore the meaning and relevance of community and social capital drawing on a wide range of disciplines, in particular economics. The review suggests four key principles for measuring community strength and social capital: * distinguish between the structure (size, density) of community networks and their content (norms of...

The trend of declining labour force participation by older working-age men, combined with an ageing population, has led many industrialised nations to develop policies encouraging older male workers to remain in the labour force. A better understanding of how an individual's health influences the labour force participation decision among this group of workers would facilitate...