William J. Serow

The Baby Boom, Amenity Retirement Migration, and Retirement Communities: Will the Golden Age of Retirement Continue?

This article explores social trends that can influence the future development of retirement communities. The leading edge of the baby boom is within a decade of the traditional retirement age. Will this generation experience the same “Golden Age of Retirement” their parents experienced? Will the baby boom make that abrupt withdrawal from the labor force in their early 60s that typified the previous generation of retirees? Changes in Social Security and pension plans along career patterns may produce a phased retirement slightly later in life. Again, changes in pension plans and the age structure of the society may depreciate the post-World War II cohort economic status as they come to retirement. Finally, will the baby boom cohort have similar residential preference as their parents did in retirement? These factors can affect the course of the future development of retirement migration and the traditional retirement community.

Why the Elderly Move Cross-National Comparisons

A great deal of the recent work dealing with aspects of the migration behavior of older persons has considered only the situation for the case of a specific nation. One of the relatively unexplored aspects of elderly migration behavior is the extent to which cross-national similarities and differences may exist. This article is a first step in that direction by considering the cross-national pattern of differences and similarities in the factors that are held to be responsible for migration. An examination of data for nine countries (the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, West Germany, Hungary, Japan, the Netherlands, and Poland) suggests considerable similarities both in terms of individual characteristics and desires that lead to migration among the elderly (such as retirement and widowhood) and characteristics of places that serve either to repel or attract older persons (such as climate and amenities).

Measuring the Economic Impact of Retirement Migration: The Case of Western North Carolina

In the fall of 1989, data were collected from a sample of 814 persons who had recently moved into the western North Carolina counties surrounding Asheville. Data on expenditures and assets were collected in a log book, in which individuals were asked to record their daily expenditures in and out of their county of residence for 1 week, along with data on major purchases (residences, vehicles, and durable goods), nonrecurrent expenditures (dues, contributions, travel), and health care expenditures and use. A description and analysis of some of these data, including private and public consequences, is presented. The article concludes with a discussion of the extent to which retirement migration in this context truly represents a net economic gain to the host community.

International handbook on internal migration.

Introduction Botswana Brazil Canada China Ecuador Egypt France Federal Republic of Germany Guatemala India Indonesia Israel Italy Japan Kenya The Netherlands Poland The Soviet Union Thailand The United Kingdom The United States Selected General Bibliography Index

Interstate Migration of the Elderly Demographic Aspects

This study examines selected patterns of interstate migration for the older population of the United States during the period 1965-1970. Three broad topical areas are investigated: (1) the age and sex composition of migration streams of the elderly, (2) the effects of migration on state age distributions, and (3) the measurement and analysis of migration streams using migration preference indexes and basic gravity models. While the findings tend to confirm much of what is already. known about older interstate movers, the use of migration streams, rather than net migration, brings into sharper focus the nature of migration among the elderly and underscores the need for further research, particularly on matters related to planning and public policy.

Cost of living differentials and elderly interstate migration.

This article replicates previous work by McLeod et al. (1984) on the determinants of state to state flows of elderly migrants in the United States. This article deals with the 1975-1980 period and finds broad similarity in the magnitude and direction of explanatory relationships. In addition, the article reports on the use of experimental state-level cost of living indicators as explanatory variables. These performed as expected with high cost of living at origin and low cost of living at destination both explaining the magnitude of state to state flows.

Return Migration of the Elderly in the United States Recent Trends

Patterns of return migration among the elderly in the United States during 1975-1980 were researched and updated. Regional trends are compared to those from previous decades. Differences in elderly migration according to age, gender, and marital status and the role of characteristics of state of birth are also considered.

Elderly migration: For sun and money

Discussions about elderly migration and its implications for growth planning tend to neglect the role of economic forces. Our view is that cost-of-living variations among states give elderly households on fixed incomes an incentive to move that closely resembles the effects of wage opportunities on workers who migrate. To test this view, we employ a state-by-state index of cost of living for a retired couple to explore its impact on migration choices of the elderly. The effects of cost of living on migration are investigated in terms of the probability that an elderly person will move out-of-state during a five-year period and the probability that a given state will be chosen as destination once a decision has been made to migrate. The influences of cost of living at both origin and destination are strongly confirmed.

Elder-Child Coresidence in the United States Evidence from the 1990 Census

We examine patterns of coresidence between elders and their adult children using a very large sample (N greater than 3.5 million) of individuals 60 and older from the 1990 decennial census. The size of the data set allows for very fine demographic detail. The study presents cross-sectional data on the probability that an elder coresides with a child, disaggregated by the elder’s gender, age (in single years), and presence or absence of spouse, and by the child’s gender. Findings include the following: (1) Younger elders are more likely to coreside with sons, and older elders are more likely to coreside with daughters; (2) for men without spouses, coresidence rates with both sons and daughters increase monotonically from age 60 to 90; and (3) among all of the groups that analyzed, only women over age 80 without spouses are more likely to live with daughters than sons.

Economic implications of retirement migration.

This article provides an overview of some of the principal economic consequences of elderly migration, especially for areas of destination. Although precise measurement of these are not possible at the national level, we can offer some informed speculation. First, these areas benefit economically from the presence of younger elderly migrants who move at or shortly after the time of retirement. Second, these areas are spared the public costs associated with demand for much of the care and support services needed at the end of life.