Causal Effect Of Retirement Research Articles

Retirement Makes You Old? Causal Effect of Retirement on Biological Age

Retirement is a critical life event for older people. Health scholars have scrutinized the health effects of retirement, but its consequences on age-related diseases and mortality are unclear. We extend this body of research by integrating measurements of biological age, representing the physiological decline preceding disease onset. Using data from the UK Biobank and a fuzzy regression discontinuity design, we estimated the effects of retirement on two biomarker-based biological age measures. Results showed that retirement significantly increases biological age for those induced to retire by the State Pension eligibility by 0.871–2.503 years, depending on sex and specific biological age measurement. Given the emerging scientific discussion about direct interventions to biological age to achieve additional improvements in population health, the positive effect of retirement on biological age has important implications for an increase in the State Pension eligibility age and its potential consequences on population health, public health care policy, and older people's labor force participation. Overall, this study provides novel empirical evidence contributing to the question of what social factors make people old.

The impact of retirement on health: Empirical evidence from the change in public pensionable age in Japan

The balance between maintaining and enhancing the health, quality of life, and healthy life expectancy of the elderly and their corresponding social costs, including medical and long-term care expenses, is an important policy issue in the context of Japan’s super-aging society. In this paper, we employ individual panel data from the four waves of the Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement to examine how retirement from the labor market affects the health of elderly males. Numerous empirical studies have shown mixed results concerning the causal effect of retirement on health through diverse and complex mechanisms. However, we present several new insights by focusing on the policy change in 2000 of raising the pensionable age for the earnings-related public pension system which completely eliminates pension income after the statutory retirement age for particular cohorts. Our fixed-effects instrumental variable estimation shows that retirement significantly improves oral function and mental health, but it also makes male retirees more susceptible to lifestyle-related diseases. Supplemental results further suggest that a significant increase in dental care utilization would help improve post-retirement oral function.

The Causal Effect of Retirement on Health: Understanding the Mechanisms

AbstractThis article examines the direct effects of retirement on health, as well as its indirect effects, through a mediation analysis. Using Australian panel data, analysis reveals that changes in retirement status and retirement duration imply positive causal effects on self‐assessed health as well as physical health and mental health. Gender plays an important role in shaping these relationships. For women, the positive relationship between retirement duration and health can be attributed to physical activity. In contrast, men appear to enjoy better health when staying retired for longer because they participate more in outdoor activities.

Partial Identification of the Causal Effect of Retirement on Cognition

We propose an identification framework to empirically evaluate the validity of the exclusion restriction in a Regression Discontinuity setting. We embed recent results from the literature on partial identification with invalid instrumental variables into a Fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Designs underpinned by assumptions that allow the interpretation of the Discontinuity Design as a type of local randomized experiment with non-compliance. We use this setting to provide the first empirical analysis of the validity of an age-based instrumental variable for retirement (eligibility for the US Social Security Retirement Pension, SSRP). The point estimates suggest an insignificant negative LATE of 8.6% within +/-9 months around the SSRP. Partial identification regions qualify this finding by, first, suggesting that if retirement is, in fact, detrimental for the memory score, then drops beyond 8% are unlikely. Second, data alone cannot identify the sign of the treatment effect. In fact, our data supports improvements in the memory score of up to 16\% following retirement. The bounds analysis suggest that, when studying the impact of retirement, the validity of eligibility as an instrumental variable depends on the time period considered for the analysis and that violations of the exclusion restriction are likely already in very small intervals of +/-8 months around the SSRP age.

The causal effect of retirement on mortality: Evidence from targeted incentives to retire early.

This paper estimates the impact of early retirement on mortality using Dutch administrative micro panel data. An unexpected temporary decrease in the eligibility age for retirement benefits for civil servants is used to instrument the retirement choice. We find that induced early retirement decreased the probability that a man dies within 5years by 2.6 percentage points. The result is robust to alternative specifications and data selection criteria.

Time to burn (calories)? The impact of retirement on physical activity among mature Americans

Physical activity is crucial for maintaining and improving health, especially at advanced ages. While retirement increases the amount of time available for physical activity, there is only limited evidence regarding the causal effect of retirement on recommended levels of physical activity. Addressing this gap in the literature, we use data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study to estimate the causal impact of retirement on meeting the federal government's 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. Using official early and normal retirement ages as instruments for retirement, our causal IV analyses suggest significant positive effects of retirement on meeting the Guidelines. These effects are robust with regard to the treatment of unobserved individual-specific heterogeneity, the measurement of guideline compliance, the definition of retirement and respondents’ health insurance status. We also show that the effects of retirement on physical activity are larger for persons with higher levels of education and wealth.

The causal effect of retirement on health: New evidence from Australian pension reform

The causal effect of retirement on health is studied using the Australian 1993 Age Pension reform to isolate exogenous variation in retirement status. Using instrumental variable methods we find that retirement has a positive impact on subjective and objective measures of health.

The Causal Effect of Retirement on Mortality: Evidence from Targeted Incentives to Retire Early

The Causal Effect of Retirement on Mortality: Evidence from Targeted Incentives to Retire Early

The Causal Effect of Retirement on Mortality: Evidence from Targeted Incentives to Retire Early

This paper identifies and estimates the impact of early retirement on the probability to die within five years, using administrative micro panel data covering the entire population of the Netherlands. Among the older workers we focus on, a group of civil servants became eligible for retirement earlier than expected during a short time window. This exogenous policy change is used to instrument the retirement choice in a model that explains the probability to die within five years. Exploiting the panel structure of our data, we allow for unobserved heterogeneity by way of individual fixed effects in modeling the retirement choice and the probability to die. We find for men that early retirement, induced by the temporary decrease in the age of eligibility for retirement benefits, decreased the probability to die within five years by 2.5 percentage points. This is a strong effect. We find that our results are robust to several specification changes.

The Causal Effect of Retirement on Mortality: Evidence from Targeted Incentives to Retire Early

This paper identifies and estimates the impact of early retirement on the probability to die within five years, using administrative micro panel data covering the entire population of the Netherlands. Among the older workers we focus on, a group of civil servants became eligible for retirement earlier than expected during a short time window. This exogenous policy change is used to instrument the retirement choice in a model that explains the probability to die within five years. Exploiting the panel structure of our data, we allow for unobserved heterogeneity by way of individual fixed effects in modeling the retirement choice and the probability to die. We find for men that early retirement, induced by the temporary decrease in the age of eligibility for retirement benefits, decreased the probability to die within five years by 2.5 percentage points. This is a strong effect. We find that our results are robust to several specification changes.