The Impact of Retirement on the Healthiness of Food Purchases

Abstract

The paper estimates the causal impact of retirement on the healthiness of food purchases. The identification strategy uses early and full retirement ages as instruments for retirement. Using household-level scanner data, I find that retirement increases fruit and vegetable purchases and overall healthiness of food purchases. I also find indirect evidence that retirement increases the time spent on shopping and food preparation: it increases shopping frequency and shifts purchases to fresh and unprepared food products. This suggests that time constraints might play a role in limiting healthy food consumption.