Labor Force Participation of Elderly in Mexico

Isalia Nava-Bolaños, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Roberto Ham-Chande, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte

In Mexico a small proportion of the elderly is covered by pensions and a large number receive an insufficient pension. The question is how people survive into old age. Independent of whether or not they are pensioned, an option is working. The results of the Population Census 2010 show that 30.6% of the individuals aged 60 or older participate in the labor market. Our main objective in this paper is to review which factors are determinants of the labor force participation of elderly in Mexico. Based on the Census data we estimate a logistic regression model, separately for the three age groups (60-64, 65-74 and 75+). In the three age groups our main results show that men are more likely to participate in the labor market; and have a pension and a disability reduce the likelihood of participation. But, the marginal effects of these variables decrease in the last groups.