Mathilde Esposito

Women can expect to live longer than men worldwide. In a context of demographic aging, they are poised to play a prominent role in the workforce and, by extension, GDP growth. This paper is the first to explore the economic consequences of women’s survival advantage and focuses on its effect on female labor supply, at the extensive margin. Cross-country evidence documents that gender gaps in life expectancy are systematically associated with higher female participation at old age. Individual-level data from the U.S. show that women indeed anticipate outliving their husband, which in turn increases their participation beyond conventional retirement age. Some determinants are a higher financial planning horizon and lower health-related work limitations, although other factors such as spousal care burden and predicted social security benefits may mitigate this effect. This can have implications for designing optimal retirement policies.