Resumen

This contribution will give an overview on international experiences in the transition between work and retirement, and will mainly focus on retirement ages. After briefly outlining the relationship between demographic change and retirement age, I will offer some methodological remarks on the definition and measurement of retirement age in an international context. I will then go on to present empirical evidence on retirement ages in two steps, first for a number of OECD countries and then for a number of countries in Central and Eastern Europe. A short discussion on the potential and the preconditions for increasing effective retirement ages concludes the contribution.