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Retirement patterns of couples in Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Laura Hospido

    (Banco de España and IZA)

  • Gema Zamarro

    (Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research. University of Southern California)

Abstract

In this paper we study the retirement patterns of couples in a multi-country setting using data from the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe. In particular, we test whether women’s (men’s) transitions out of the labor force are causally related to the actual realization of their husbands’ (wives’) transition, using the institutional variation in country-specific early and full statutory retirement ages to instrument the latter. Exploiting the discontinuities in retirement behavior across countries, we find a significant joint retirement effect, especially for women, of around 16 to 18 percentage points. For men, we find a similar but less precise effect. Our empirical strategy allows us to give a causal interpretation to the effect we estimate. In addition, this effect has important implications for policy analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura Hospido & Gema Zamarro, 2013. "Retirement patterns of couples in Europe," Working Papers 1317, Banco de España;Working Papers Homepage.
    • Handle: RePEc:bde:wpaper:1317
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Erich Battistin & Agar Brugiavini & Enrico Rettore & Guglielmo Weber, 2009. "The Retirement Consumption Puzzle: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(5), pages 2209-2226, December.
    2. William E. Even & David A. Macpherson, 1994. "Gender Differences in Pensions," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 29(2), pages 555-587.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. repec:eee:joecag:v:9:y:2017:i:c:p:1-13 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Marco Bertoni & Giorgio Brunello, 2014. "Pappa Ante Portas: The Retired Husband Syndrome in Japan," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0182, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".
    3. repec:eee:jhecon:v:57:y:2018:i:c:p:45-59 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Ciani, Emanuele, 2016. "Retirement, pension eligibility and home production," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 106-120.
    5. repec:spr:jlabre:v:38:y:2017:i:4:d:10.1007_s12122-017-9258-3 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. repec:bpj:bejeap:v:17:y:2017:i:2:p:21:n:6 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. repec:eee:hapoch:v1_457 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Boman, Anders, 2015. "Spending time together? Effects on the retirement decision from partner’s labour market status," Working Papers in Economics 618, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    9. Laura Hospido, 2015. "Pension reform and couples' joint retirement decisions," IZA World of Labor, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), pages 142-142, April.
    10. Godard, Mathilde, 2016. "Gaining weight through retirement? Results from the SHARE survey," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 27-46.
    11. Monika Riedel & Helmut Hofer & Birgit Wögerbauer, 2015. "Determinants for the transition from work into retirement in Europe," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-19, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Joint retirement; Social security incentives;

    JEL classification:

    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies
    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models

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