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Is Retirement Depressing?: Labor Force Inactivity And Psychological Well-Being In Later Life

In: Accounting for Worker Well-Being

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  • Kerwin Kofi Charles

Abstract

This paper assesses how retirement – defined as permanent labor force non-participation in a man’s mature years – affects psychological welfare. The raw correlation between retirement and well-being is negative. But this does not imply causation. In particular, people with idiosyncratically low well-being, or people facing transitory shocks which adversely affect well-being might disproportionately select into retirement. Discontinuous retirement incentives in the Social Security System, and changes in laws affecting mandatory retirement and Social Security benefits allows the exogenous effect of retirement on happiness to be estimated. The paper finds that the direct effect of retirement on well-being is positive once the fact that retirement and well-being are simultaneously determined is accounted for.

Suggested Citation

  • Kerwin Kofi Charles, 2004. "Is Retirement Depressing?: Labor Force Inactivity And Psychological Well-Being In Later Life," Research in Labor Economics, in: Accounting for Worker Well-Being, pages 269-299, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:rleczz:s0147-9121(04)23008-4
    DOI: 10.1016/S0147-9121(04)23008-4
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Messe, Pierre-Jean & Wolff, François-Charles, 2019. "The short-term effects of retirement on health within couples: Evidence from France," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 27-39.
    2. Mohamed Ebeid & Umut Oguzoglu, 2023. "Short‐term effect of retirement on health: Evidence from nonparametric fuzzy regression discontinuity design," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(6), pages 1323-1343, June.
    3. 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.
    4. Wang, Tianyu & Sun, Ruochen & Sindelar, Jody L. & Chen, Xi, 2023. "Occupational Differences in the Effects of Retirement on Hospitalizations for Mental Illness among Female Workers: Evidence from Administrative Data in China," IZA Discussion Papers 16545, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Asal Pilehvari & Wen You & Xu Lin, 2023. "Retirement’s impact on health: what role does social network play?," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 1-20, December.
    6. Johannes Geyer & Mara Barschkett & Peter Haan & Anna Hammerschmid, 2023. "The effects of an increase in the retirement age on health care costs: evidence from administrative data," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 24(7), pages 1101-1120, September.
    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).

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