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

Author

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  • Lührmann Melanie

    (Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, 7 Ridgmount Street,London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Lührmann Melanie, 2010. "Consumer Expenditures and Home Production at Retirement – New Evidence from Germany," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 11(2), pages 225-245, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:germec:v:11:y:2010:i:2:p:225-245
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0475.2010.00509.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Ludmila Nivorozhkina & Anton Nivorozhkin & Kamilla Abazieva, 2010. "Drop in consumption associated with retirement. The regression discontinuity design approach," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 19(3), pages 112-126.
    2. 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.
    3. Drescher, Larissa S. & Roosen, Jutta, 2013. "A Cohort Analysis of Food-at-Home and Food-away-from-Home Expenditures in Germany," German Journal of Agricultural Economics, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Department for Agricultural Economics, vol. 62(01), pages 1-13, February.
    4. Tian, Geran & Jin, Changlun & Wu, Weixing, 2024. "Too old to spend? Understanding the consumption of the elderly in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    5. Miriam Beblo & Sven Schreiber, 2022. "Leisure and housing consumption after retirement: new evidence on the life-cycle hypothesis," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 305-330, March.
    6. Zarul Khaliff Kamal* & Siti Mardhiah Isa & Ros Idayuwati Alaudin & Noriszura Ismail, 2018. "Adequacy of Retirement Wealth in Malaysia: Spending Behaviour Analysis," The Journal of Social Sciences Research, Academic Research Publishing Group, pages 429-435:6.
    7. Miriam Beblo & Sven Schreiber, 2010. "The Life-Cycle Hypothesis Revisited: Evidence on Housing Consumption after Retirement," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 339, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    8. Jia Qi & Swarn Chatterjee & Yingyi Liu, 2022. "Retirement Preparedness of Generation X Compared to Other Cohorts in the United States," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-14, June.
    9. 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.
    10. Velarde, Melanie & Herrmann, Roland, 2014. "How retirement changes consumption and household production of food: Lessons from German time-use data," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 3(C), pages 1-10.
    11. Anton Nivorozhkin & Ludmila Nivorozhkina & Kamila Abazieva, 2013. "Expenditures and Income Adequacy at Retirement," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(3), pages 2017-2023.
    12. Daniel S. Hamermesh & Michał Myck & Monika Oczkowska, 2021. "Widows’ Time, Time Stress and Happiness: Adjusting to Loss," NBER Working Papers 28752, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Drescher, Larissa S. & Roosen, Jutta, 2013. "A Cohort Analysis of Food-at-Home and Food-away-from-Home Expenditures in Germany," Journal of International Agricultural Trade and Development, Journal of International Agricultural Trade and Development, vol. 62(1).

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    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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