Does Retirement Kill You? Evidence from Early Retirement Windows
31 Pages Posted: 11 Nov 2008
There are 2 versions of this paper
Does Retirement Kill You? Evidence from Early Retirement Windows
Abstract
The magnitude of the effect that health has on the retirement decision has long been studied. We examine the reverse relationship, whether or not retirement has a direct impact on later-life health. In order to identify the causal relationship, we use unexpected early retirement window offers to instrument for retirement behavior. They are legally required to be unrelated to the baseline health of the individual, and are significant predictors of retirement. We find that there is no negative effect of early retirement on men's health, and if anything, a temporary increase in self-reported health and improvements in health of highly educated workers. While this is consistent with previous literature using Social Security ages as instruments, we also find some evidence that anticipation of retirement might also be important, and might bias the previous estimates towards zero.
Keywords: health, retirement, instrument, causal effect
JEL Classification: I12, J08, J14
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Is Retirement Depressing?: Labor Force Inactivity and Psychological Well-Being in Later Life
-
Estimating the Health Effects of Retirement
By John Bound and Timothy Waidmann
-
By Maarten Lindeboom, France Portrait, ...
-
By Maarten Lindeboom, France Portrait, ...
-
The Effects of Retirement on Physical and Mental Health Outcomes
By Dhaval Dave, Inas Kelly, ...
-
The Effects of Retirement on Physical and Mental Health Outcomes
By Dhaval Dave, Inas Kelly, ...
-
Retirement Effects on Health in Europe
By Norma Coe and Gema Zamarro
-
By Susann Rohwedder and Robert J. Willis