SHARE Survey Management

This undertaking strives to firmly establish the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), conducted for the first time in 2004 – 2005, and repeated in subsequent waves of data collection in 2006 – 2007, 2008 – 2009 and 2010 – 2011, as a long-term European research infrastructure at the free disposal of academics, with a strong German base funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Further plans are to extend the survey by fifth, sixth and seventh waves under SHARE-ERIC Phase II. With meanwhile over 60,000 respondents aged 50+, SHARE already now furnishes a worldwide unique database on the living conditions of older people in currently 20 European countries (including Israel). Additional accessions to SHARE and enlargements of the country samples are in preparation. SHARE is distinguished by its thematic diversity and multi-disciplinary approach, as well as by its assurance of strict cross-national comparability and its longitudinal perspective. This is deemed the only way to obtain a full picture of the aging process as both an individual and a societal phenomenon. Here is a list of the individual research themes: • Gainful employment and retirement The inquiry seeks to determine what factors (notably health and pension insurance reforms) impact the retirement decisions and life situations of older people. To that end, it is necessary to monitor individuals over a space of time before and after they retire. • Informal work, productive aging and employment histories The prime intent here is to explore how volunteer work changes over time – particularly in relation to "critical" life events. • Intergenerational relationships Along with a differentiated investigation into determinants for the division of eldercare work between the family and the welfare state, the life course perspective is yet again in the foreground here. The main objective is to look at how familial ties develop in the course of time and what overall conditions foster stable relationships between generations. • Social determinants of health inequality Also and especially in Germany, health and mortality are crucially dependent on socio-economic status (income, education). Many of the reasons are known, but not their weight nor, in numerous cases, their effective direction. This research field expects to receive major stimuli from accessing the retrospective data of SHARELIFE, as well as from the collection of additional biometric data under the fourth SHARE wave and the externally funded CHANCES project (see 5.3.). • Methodological accompanying research The main priority areas here are "validation", "age effects in response behavior", "incentive schemes and interviewer effects", as well as "methodological aspects of linking survey data with official statistics and biomarkers".