This paper measures the implications of the automation process in the labour market for the early retirement decisions in 26 European countries. In order to perform the analysis, we use microdata from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, occupation-level data on automation degree and automation risk and a technological classification of occupations in 4 terrains. We find that the current technological change is playing a significant role in the early retirement decisions, although it affects heterogeneously certain groups in the sample (regarding gender, education level and job status). This fact leads to a contradiction between governments trying to delay retirement ages and labour markets trying to expel workers earlier. Therefore, we conclude that, in order to elaborate policies on ageing and retirement, the effect of new labour-saving technologies in older worker’s decisions must be taken into account. We propose that the delay in statutory retirement ages should be accompanied by training programs and/or policies promoting self-employment for workers at risk of ending their working lives prematurely. Furthermore, the programs aimed to relocate middle-age workers displaced from their original occupations should focus on finding a new occupation among those which are less affected by automation processes.

本文衡量了劳动力市场自动化过程对 26 个欧洲国家提前退休决策的影响。为了进行分析，我们使用了欧洲健康、老龄化和退休调查的微观数据、关于自动化程度和自动化风险的职业级别数据以及 4 个领域的职业技术分类. 我们发现，当前的技术变革在提前退休决策中发挥着重要作用，尽管它对样本中的某些群体产生了异质性影响（关于性别、教育水平和工作状况）。这一事实导致试图推迟退休年龄的政府与试图提前驱逐工人的劳动力市场之间的矛盾。因此，我们得出结论，为了制定老龄化和退休政策，必须考虑新的劳动力节省技术对老年工人决策的影响。我们建议，在延迟法定退休年龄的同时，应制定培训计划和/或政策，以促进面临过早结束职业生涯风险的工人自主创业。此外，