Why do people retire from work early?

This article examines the validity of a mortality study of early retirees by Dr. Eric Kingson. The Kingson study supports the hypothesis that men who retired early were very prone to have work-limiting conditions even though they were not awarded Disability Insurance benefits. This article maintains that Kingson's study is analytically faulty because of the procedure used to categorize the sample. In comparing groups of early retirees, Kingson combined two groups--(1) severely disabled persons who died before becoming eligible to receive Disability Insurance benefits and (2) early retirees who alleged work-limiting disability. He found that their combined mortality was higher than that of those who received Disability Insurance benefits. He then concluded that, for this reason, early retirees who alleged work-limiting disability really had such disabilities. However, this article contends that the mortality effects of the first group are so great as to mask any conclusions relevant to the two groups combined. The analysis here does not conclude that persons generally do not retire early because of poor health, but rather that the findings of Kingson's study, being based on faulty mortality analysis, are not conclusive.