Mandatory Retirement Rules and Retirement Decisions of University Professors in Canada - ARCHIVED

The age distributions of professors at Canadian universities without mandatory retirement and those at universities with mandatory retirement at age 65 have diverged over time with a higher fraction of professors over the age of 65 being at universities without mandatory retirement. An analysis of a discrete time hazard model indicates that faculty members at universities with mandatory retirement at age 65 have exit rates at age 65 that are 30 to 35 percentage points higher than those of their counterparts at universities without mandatory retirement. Similar results are found for both men and women; however, the magnitude of this effect is somewhat smaller for women. This does not support the view that mandatory retirement is a more severe constraint on the behaviour of female academics