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Consumer Expenditures and Home Production at Retirement - New Evidence from Germany

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  • Melanie Lührmann

Abstract

This paper investigates consumer expenditures of German households pre- and post-retirement. The widely observed distinct drop in spending upon retirement entry poses an empirical puzzle since life cycle theory predicts smoothing of the marginal utility of consumption over time. As one explanation, I explore the role of home production as a substitute for consumer expenses. Taking a combined look at consumer expenditures and time use pre- and post-retirement, I find a significant drop of about 17% of pre-retirement expenses at retirement which coincides with an increase in time spent on home production of an additional 89 minutes per day, accounting for 21% of average home production. Copyright 2009 The Author. Journal Compilation Verein für Socialpolitik and Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2009.

Suggested Citation

  • Melanie Lührmann, 2010. "Consumer Expenditures and Home Production at Retirement - New Evidence from Germany," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 11, pages 225-245, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:germec:v:11:y:2010:i::p:225-245
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Velarde, Melanie & Herrmann, Roland, 2014. "Time use for consumption and household production of food: is there a retirement-consumption puzzle in Germany?," 2014 International Congress, August 26-29, 2014, Ljubljana, Slovenia 182829, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Peine & Ingo Rollwagen & Louis Neven, 2012. "Exploring new patterns of user involvement – baby boomers and the future of consumption," Innovation Studies Utrecht (ISU) working paper series 12-09, Utrecht University, Department of Innovation Studies, revised Sep 2012.
    3. Martin Browning & Thomas F. Crossley & Melanie Lührmann, 2016. "Durable Purchases over the Later Life Cycle," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 78(2), pages 145-169, April.
    4. Peine, Alexander & Rollwagen, Ingo & Neven, Louis, 2014. "The rise of the “innosumer”—Rethinking older technology users," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 199-214.
    5. Nivorozhkina, Ludmila & Nivorozhkin, Anton & Abazieva, Kamilla, 2010. "Drop in consumption associated with retirement. The regression discontinuity design approach," Applied Econometrics, Publishing House "SINERGIA PRESS", vol. 19(3), pages 112-126.
    6. Ciani, Emanuele, 2016. "Retirement, pension eligibility and home production," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 106-120.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis

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