Faculty of Law and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany.
Faculty of Law and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany.
Econ Hum Biol. 2022 Dec;47:101171. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2022.101171. Epub 2022 Aug 6.
Does retirement lead to a short, transitory health boost, followed by a stable longer-run effect? The short-run effect has been hypothesized to be a kind of honeymoon effect, that is followed by a longer-run effect that may be either positive or negative. We examine the time path of the health effect of retirement and study effect heterogeneities between individuals along several dimensions. Moreover, we study a broad range of health outcomes, all in order to come to an understanding of the effect patterns that lie behind the diverse findings reported in previous research. For identification we use a fixed effects instrumental variable approach in which the normal and early retirement age thresholds serve as instruments. Using data for 10 countries from the Survey of Health, Retirement and Ageing in Europe (SHARE), we find that retiring both at the normal and early retirement eligibility ages significantly improves all the health aspects we consider. Other than hypothesized, results do not show a honeymoon phase-like transitory health boost. Instead, especially blue-collar workers go through an adjustment period after retiring, in which their health worsens. Afterwards, health stabilizes and improves, so that retirement has a health preserving effect in the longer run. This beneficial health effect of retirement occurs across all occupational groups, across a range of health outcomes, and for both sexes, though there are a number of heterogeneities between groups regarding which health outcomes are particularly affected.
退休是否会带来短暂的、短暂的健康促进，随后是稳定的长期影响？短期效应被假设为一种蜜月效应，随后是可能为正或负的长期效应。我们考察了退休对健康的影响的时间路径，并研究了个体在多个维度上的效应异质性。此外，我们研究了广泛的健康结果，所有这些都是为了了解背后的影响模式，这些模式解释了之前研究报告的不同发现。为了进行识别，我们使用了固定效应工具变量方法，其中正常和提前退休年龄阈值作为工具。我们使用了来自欧洲健康、退休和老龄化调查（SHARE）的 10 个国家的数据，发现无论是在正常退休年龄还是提前退休年龄退休，都会显著改善我们考虑的所有健康方面。与假设相反，结果并没有显示出蜜月期般的短暂健康促进。相反，尤其是蓝领工人在退休后会经历一个调整期，在此期间他们的健康状况恶化。之后，健康状况稳定并得到改善，因此退休对长期健康具有保护作用。这种退休对健康的有益影响适用于所有职业群体，适用于一系列健康结果，也适用于两性，但不同群体之间存在一些关于哪些健康结果受到特别影响的异质性。
