Ariane Bertogg

Against the background of rising life expectations and welfare budget retrenchments, the societal participation of older people is gaining political and societal importance. The concept of "Productive Ageing" includes various paid and unpaid activities, such as employment, volunteering, informal elder care and grandchild care. Despite a large share of older men and women being engaged in one or several productive activities, we can observe considerable gender differences in activity patterns. Previous studies have indicated that micro-level theories only partly suffice to explain these differences found. Rather, comparative research indicates that the decisions to take up or leave these activities are highly context-sensitive. However, most studies look at individuals linkages in a rather isolated way, and comparative studies often do not go beyond providing descriptive evidence about country differences. Last but not least, the causal direction of the linkages between several activity types often remains unclear.
The proposed project thus addresses the following two research questions: (1) What contextual dimensions influence the participation of men and women in activities in the public and private domain in their second half of life? (2) How does the influence of different contextual dimensions interact?