Research project Old and poor? A life course perspective on pathways to old-age poverty
How do different life events affect the risk of living in poverty after 60? This project is the first to analyse the impact of the whole life story—including both family and work situation—on the economical situation in later life.
The share of older adults in poverty has risen over the past 30 years, and Swedish pension reforms have increased inequality. Research shows that certain work and family situations increase old-age poverty risk. Yet there is a lack of comprehensive understanding of how work and family trajectories, and their accumulation and interplay, shape later-life economic situation.
This project aims to explore these processes in three research questions, using life course data of higher quality and longitudinal depth than any previous research on these topics:
- What work-life events and trajectories, and
- what family-life events and trajectories affect the risk of old age poverty? and
- What role does the interplay between the 1) and 2) have in (jointly) shaping the risk of old age poverty?
The research questions also explore changes in old age poverty risk over time, its variation among social groups, and shifts in the size of these groups.
The researchers are examining cohorts 1930–1955, covering a wide range of sociodemographic events and characteristics up to 2022, using register data. The statistical methods include event history analysis, regressions, sequence and cluster analyses and SEM.
The project is based at Stockholm University with experts in demography, sociology, social work, public policy and aging studies.