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The Retirement-Consumption Puzzle: A Marital Bargaining Approach

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Author Info
Shelly Lundberg
Richard Startz
Steven Stillman

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Abstract

Evidence from several countries reveals a substantial drop in household consumption around the age of retirement that is difficult to explain with life-cycle models. Using food consumption data from more than 550 households from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics for the years 1979-1986 and 1989-1992, the authors find that married couple households decrease their expenditures on food consumed both at home and away from home by about 8 percent following the retirement of the male household head. This result is robust for several alternative definitions of retirement. No significant decrease in consumption is found for single households, either in a sample of males or a pooled sample of single males and females. These results are consistent with a model of marital bargaining in which wives prefer to save more than their husbands to support an expected longer retirement period, and relative control over household decisions is affected by control over market income.

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Paper provided by RAND Corporation Publications Department in its series Working Papers with number 01-04.

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Length: 42 pages
Date of creation: Feb 2001
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Handle: RePEc:ran:wpaper:01-04

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Chiappori, Pierre-Andre, 1992. "Collective Labor Supply and Welfare," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(3), pages 437-67, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Akerlof, George A, 1991. "Procrastination and Obedience," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(2), pages 1-19, May.
  3. Lundberg, Shelly & Pollak, Robert A, 1993. "Separate Spheres Bargaining and the Marriage Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(6), pages 988-1010, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Saku Aura, . "Does the balance of power within a family matter? The case of the Retirement Equity Act," Working Papers 202, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Martin Browning & Thomas F. Crossley, 2000. "The Life Cycle Model of Consumption and Saving," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 28, McMaster University. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Laibson, David, 1997. "Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 112(2), pages 443-77, May.
  7. Banks, James & Blundell, Richard & Tanner, Sarah, 1998. "Is There a Retirement-Savings Puzzle?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(4), pages 769-88, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Hamermesh, Daniel S, 1984. "Consumption during Retirement: The Missing Link in the Life Cycle," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 66(1), pages 1-7, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Chiappori, Pierre-Andre, 1988. "Rational Household Labor Supply," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(1), pages 63-90, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. B. Douglas Bernheim & Jonathan Skinner & Steven Weinberg, 1997. "What Accounts for the Variation in Retirement Wealth Among U.S. Households?," NBER Working Papers 6227, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Attanasio, Orazio P & Weber, Guglielmo, 1995. "Is Consumption Growth Consistent with Intertemporal Optimization? Evidence from the Consumer Expenditure Survey," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(6), pages 1121-57, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Martin Browning, 1994. "The Saving Behaviour of a Two Person Household," Discussion Papers 96-09, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics, revised Jan 1996.
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  13. Shelly Lundberg & Robert A. Pollak, 2001. "Efficiency in Marriage," NBER Working Papers 8642, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Euwals, Rob & Börsch-Supan, Axel & Eymann, Angelika, 2000. "The Saving Behaviour of Two Person Households: Evidence from Dutch Panel Data," IZA Discussion Papers 238, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  1. David M. Blau, 2007. "Retirement and Consumption in a Life Cycle Model," IZA Discussion Papers 2986, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  2. Amihai Glazer, 2008. "Social security and conflict within the family," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 331-338, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Irina Grafova, 2007. "Your Money or Your Life: Managing Health, Managing Money," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 285-303, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Melanie Lührmann & Jürgen Maurer, 2008. "Who wears the trousers? A semiparametric analysis of decision power in couples," MEA discussion paper series 08168, Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging (MEA), University of Mannheim. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Saku Aura, 2003. "Uncommitted Couples: Some Efficiency and Policy Implications of Marital Bargaining," Microeconomics 0304002, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Melvin Stephens Jr. & Steven J. Haider, 2003. "Can Unexpected Retirement Explain The Retirement-Consumption Puzzle? Evidence For Subjective Retirement Expectations," Working Papers, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College 2003-15, Center for Retirement Research. [Downloadable!]
  7. Maurizio Mazzocco, 2004. "Saving, Risk Sharing, and Preferences for Risk," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(4), pages 1169-1182, September. [Downloadable!]
  8. Shelly Lundberg & Robert Pollak, 2003. "Efficiency in Marriage," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 153-167, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Erik Hurst, 2008. "The Retirement of a Consumption Puzzle," NBER Working Papers 13789, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Steven Haider & Melvin Stephens Jr., 2004. "Is There a Retirement-Consumption Puzzle? Evidence Using Subjective Retirement Expectations," NBER Working Papers 10257, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Mark Aguiar & Erik Hurst, 2004. "Consumption vs. Expenditure," NBER Working Papers 10307, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. John Gibson & Trinh Le & Grant Scobie, 2006. "Household bargaining over wealth and the adequacy of women's retirement incomes in New Zealand," Feminist Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 12(1-2), pages 221-246, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Leora Friedberg & Anthony Webb, 2006. "Determinants and Consequences of Bargaining Power in Households," NBER Working Papers 12367, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Angela C. Lyons & Tansel Yilmazer, 2004. "How Does Marriage Affect the Allocation of Assets in Women's Defined Contribution Plans?," Working Papers, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College 2004-28, Center for Retirement Research. [Downloadable!]
  15. repec:bep:eapcon:v:8:y:2008:i:1:p:1793-1793 is not listed on IDEAS
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  16. Melanie Lührmann, 2005. "Population Aging and the Demand for Goods & Services," MEA discussion paper series 05095, Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging (MEA), University of Mannheim. [Downloadable!]
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