Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina.
George Mason University, Arlington, Virginia.
Health Econ. 2018 Dec;27(12):2067-2086. doi: 10.1002/hec.3821. Epub 2018 Aug 23.
We utilize panel data from the Health and Retirement Study to investigate the impact of retirement on physical and mental health, life satisfaction, and health care utilization. Because poor health can induce retirement, we instrument for retirement using eligibility for Social Security and employer-sponsored pensions and coverage by the Social Security earnings test. We find strong evidence that retirement improves reported health, mental health, and life satisfaction. In addition, we find evidence of improvements in functional limitations in the long run. Although the impact on life satisfaction occurs within the first 4 years of retirement, many of the improvements in health show up four or more years later, consistent with the view that health is a stock that evolves slowly. We find no evidence that the health improvements are driven by increased health care utilization. In fact, results suggest decreased utilization in some categories.
我们利用健康与退休研究（Health and Retirement Study）中的面板数据，调查了退休对身心健康、生活满意度和医疗保健利用的影响。由于健康状况不佳可能会导致退休，因此我们使用社会保障和雇主赞助的养老金资格以及社会保障收入测试的覆盖范围作为退休的工具变量。我们有强有力的证据表明，退休会改善报告的健康状况、心理健康和生活满意度。此外，我们还发现长期来看功能限制有所改善。尽管对生活满意度的影响发生在退休后的头 4 年内，但健康状况的许多改善要在 4 年或更长时间后才会出现，这与健康是一种缓慢演变的存量的观点是一致的。我们没有发现健康改善是由医疗保健利用率增加驱动的证据。事实上，结果表明某些类别的利用率有所下降。
