Replication Files for Pensions and household structure: Pennsylvania Railroad retirees in 1900, 1910, and 1920

The proportion of elderly people living apart from children increased dramatically during the twentieth century (Gratton & Gutmann, 2010; Smith, 1982). Most observers attribute this change to increasing incomes, but Ruggles argues that attitudes became less favorable to coresidence with children (Ruggles, 1994, 1996, 2003, 2009, 2015). We use the introduction of the Pennsylvania Railroad Pension to examine the role of income in residential decisions of the elderly. In 1900 the Pennsylvania Railroad announced that all employees over the age of 70 would be retired from service with pensions. Pensions were substantial, about 40 percent of pre-retirement wages, and workers in poor health could retire starting at age 65. We linked retirees from pension records to censuses to examine the relationship between incomes and household patterns in 1900, 1910, and 1920. Although men living with their wives were not affected, we find direct relationships between pension incomes and early retirement and household structure among widowers. Widowers with higher incomes were more likely to head their own households and less likely to live with a married child. Men who retired early because of poor health were less likely to remain heads of household and more likely to live with a married child. These patterns are consistent with Laslett’s (1988) “nuclear hardship” hypothesis, and they support the view that higher incomes later in the century would have reduced coresidence with children, especially married children.

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