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How the lifecycle hypothesis explains volunteering during retirement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2011

ARIE SHERMAN  and
TAL SHAVIT
ARIE SHERMAN
Affiliation:
School of Economics and Business Administration, Ruppin Academic Center, Israel.
TAL SHAVIT*
Affiliation:
The School of Business Administration, The College of Management, Israel.
*
Address for correspondence: Tal Shavit, Head of Department of Finance, The School of Business Administration, The College of Management, 7 Rabin Ave., Rishon-Le'Zion, Israel. E-mail: shavittal@gmail.com
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Abstract

We suggest two supplements to Franco Modigliani's lifecycle model in order to explain why people who have retired from paid work choose either to start volunteering or increase the amount of time they devote to volunteer work. First, total consumption consists of both the material and immaterial products of work. While people can save their income in order to maintain an even level of material consumption, they unable to save a portion of the immaterial product. Second, at the statutory retirement age people retire only from paid work. We argue that older people substitute paid work for volunteering due to their inherent need to maintain immaterial consumption during retirement.

Keywords

lifecyclevolunteeringconsumptionretirementimmaterial
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 32 , Issue 8 , November 2012 , pp. 1360 - 1381
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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