IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/has/discpr/2122.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effect of Involuntary Retirement on Healthcare Use and Health Status

Author

Listed:
  • Anikó Bíró

    (Health and Population Lendület Research Group, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, 1097 Budapest, Tóth Kálmán u. 4.)

  • Réka Branyiczki

    (Central European University and TÁRKI)

  • Péter Elek

    (Health and Population Lendület Research Group, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, 1097 Budapest, Tóth Kálmán u. 4. and Institute of Economics, Corvinus University of Budapest)

Abstract

We analyse the causal effect of involuntary retirement on detailed indicators of healthcare use and health status. Our identification strategy is based on a pension reform in Hungary which forced public sector workers above the statutory retirement age to full time retirement. Using rich administrative data, we find that on the three-year horizon, involuntary retirement decreases the number of primary care doctor visits, the consumption of antiinfectives for systemic use and drugs of the respiratory system, and the non-zero spending on antiinfectives, the drugs of the alimentary tract and metabolism and of the cardiovascular system. We also find that the impact on the latter two drug categories is driven by the drop in income due to involuntary retirement. The effects of involuntary retirement are comparable to the short-run effects of voluntary retirement, identified from a change in the statutory retirement age. We conclude that there is little evidence for health deteriorating effects of involuntary retirement and provide explanations for the possible mechanisms behind our results.

Suggested Citation

  • Anikó Bíró & Réka Branyiczki & Péter Elek, 2021. "The Effect of Involuntary Retirement on Healthcare Use and Health Status," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 2122, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:has:discpr:2122
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://kti.krtk.hu/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/CERSIEWP202122.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bonsang, Eric & Klein, Tobias J., 2012. "Retirement and subjective well-being," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 83(3), pages 311-329.
    2. Celidoni, Martina & Dal Bianco, Chiara & Weber, Guglielmo, 2017. "Retirement and cognitive decline. A longitudinal analysis using SHARE data," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 113-125.
    3. Kuhn, Michael & Wrzaczek, Stefan & Prskawetz, Alexia & Feichtinger, Gustav, 2015. "Optimal choice of health and retirement in a life-cycle model," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 158(PA), pages 186-212.
    4. Gove, Walter R., 1984. "Gender differences in mental and physical illness: The effects of fixed roles and nurturant roles," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 77-84, January.
    5. Warman, Casey & Worswick, Christopher, 2010. "Mandatory Retirement Rules and the Retirement Decisions of University Professors in Canada," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 1022-1029, December.
    6. Susann Rohwedder & Robert J. Willis, 2010. "Mental Retirement," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(1), pages 119-138, Winter.
    7. Heller-Sahlgren, Gabriel, 2017. "Retirement blues," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 66-78.
    8. Emslie, Carol & Fuhrer, Rebecca & Hunt, Kate & Macintyre, Sally & Shipley, Martin & Stansfeld, Stephen, 2002. "Gender differences in mental health: evidence from three organisations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 621-624, February.
    9. Zhang, Yi & Salm, Martin & van Soest, Arthur, 2018. "The effect of retirement on healthcare utilization: Evidence from China," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 165-177.
    10. Eibich, Peter, 2015. "Understanding the effect of retirement on health: Mechanisms and heterogeneity," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 1-12.
    11. Coe, Norma B. & Zamarro, Gema, 2011. "Retirement effects on health in Europe," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 77-86, January.
    12. Nielsen, Nick Fabrin, 2019. "Sick of retirement?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 133-152.
    13. Bender, Keith A., 2012. "An analysis of well-being in retirement: The role of pensions, health, and ‘voluntariness’ of retirement," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 424-433.
    14. Hessel, Philipp, 2016. "Does retirement (really) lead to worse health among European men and women across all educational levels?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 19-26.
    15. Kevin Neuman, 2008. "Quit Your Job and Get Healthier? The Effect of Retirement on Health," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 177-201, June.
    16. Titus Galama & Arie Kapteyn & Raquel Fonseca & Pierre‐Carl Michaud, 2013. "A Health Production Model With Endogenous Retirement," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(8), pages 883-902, August.
    17. Stefanie Behncke, 2012. "Does retirement trigger ill health?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(3), pages 282-300, March.
    18. William T. Gallo & Elizabeth H. Bradley & Michele Siegel & Stanislav V. Kasl, 2000. "Health Effects of Involuntary Job Loss Among Older Workers," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 55(3), pages 131-140.
    19. Orley Ashenfelter & David Card, 2002. "Did the Elimination of Mandatory Retirement Affect Faculty Retirement?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(4), pages 957-980, September.
    20. Rose, Liam, 2020. "Retirement and health: Evidence from England," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    21. William T. Gallo & Elizabeth H. Bradley & Joel A. Dubin & Richard N. Jones & Tracy A. Falba & Hsun-Mei Teng & Stanislav V. Kasl, 2006. "The Persistence of Depressive Symptoms in Older Workers Who Experience Involuntary Job Loss: Results From the Health and Retirement Survey," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 61(4), pages 221-228.
    22. Anikó Bíró & Péter Elek, 2018. "How does retirement affect healthcare expenditures? Evidence from a change in the retirement age," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(5), pages 803-818, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anikó Bíró & Réka Branyiczki & Péter Elek, 2022. "The effect of involuntary retirement on healthcare use," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(6), pages 1012-1032, June.
    2. Mattia Filomena & Matteo Picchio, 2023. "Retirement and health outcomes in a meta‐analytical framework," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(4), pages 1120-1155, September.
    3. Clémentine Garrouste & Elsa Perdrix, 2022. "Is there a consensus on the health consequences of retirement? A literature review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 841-879, September.
    4. Leimer, Birgit & van Ewijk, Reyn, 2022. "No “honeymoon phase”: whose health benefits from retirement and when," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    5. Eibich, Peter & Goldzahl, Léontine, 2021. "Does retirement affect secondary preventive care use? Evidence from breast cancer screening," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    6. Kuusi, T. & Martikainen, P. & Valkonen, T., 2020. "The influence of old-age retirement on health: Causal evidence from the Finnish register data," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    7. Barschkett, Mara & Geyer, Johannes & Haan, Peter & Hammerschmid, Anna, 2022. "The effects of an increase in the retirement age on health — Evidence from administrative data," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    8. Matteo Picchio & Jan C. van Ours, 2020. "Mental Health Effects of Retirement," De Economist, Springer, vol. 168(3), pages 419-452, September.
    9. Pierre-Jean Messe & François-Charles Wolff, 2019. "Healthier when retiring earlier? Evidence from France," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(47), pages 5122-5143, October.
    10. Thomas Barnay & Eric Defebvre, 2018. "Retired, at last? The short-term impact of retirement on health status in France," TEPP Working Paper 2018-01, TEPP.
    11. Bertoni, Marco & Brunello, Giorgio & Mazzarella, Gianluca, 2018. "Does postponing minimum retirement age improve healthy behaviors before retirement? Evidence from middle-aged Italian workers," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 215-227.
    12. Jan C. van Ours, 2022. "How Retirement Affects Mental Health, Cognitive Skills and Mortality; An Overview of Recent Empirical Evidence," De Economist, Springer, vol. 170(3), pages 375-400, August.
    13. Yuanrong Xu, 2023. "The effect of retirement on health and mortality in the United States," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 1-22, June.
    14. Antoine Bozio & Clémentine Garrouste & Elsa Perdrix, 2021. "Impact of later retirement on mortality: Evidence from France," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(5), pages 1178-1199, May.
    15. Johannes Hagen, 2018. "The effects of increasing the normal retirement age on health care utilization and mortality," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(1), pages 193-234, January.
    16. Zhang, Yi & Salm, Martin & van Soest, Arthur, 2018. "The effect of retirement on healthcare utilization: Evidence from China," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 165-177.
    17. Pedron, Sara & Maier, Werner & Peters, Annette & Linkohr, Birgit & Meisinger, Christine & Rathmann, Wolfgang & Eibich, Peter & Schwettmann, Lars, 2020. "The effect of retirement on biomedical and behavioral risk factors for cardiovascular and metabolic disease," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    18. Hagen, Johannes, 2016. "What are the Health effects of postponing retirement? An instrumental variable approach," Working Paper Series 2016:11, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    19. Maja Weemes Grøtting & Otto Sevaldson Lillebø, 2020. "Health effects of retirement: evidence from survey and register data," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(2), pages 671-704, April.
    20. Yingying Zhang & Steve Bradley & Robert Crouchley, 2023. "Gender Differences in the Effect of Retirement Duration on Cognitive Functioning," Working Papers 379420912, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    healthcare use; involuntary retirement; voluntary retirement;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:has:discpr:2122. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Nora Horvath (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iehashu.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.