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Retirement Patterns of Couples in Europe

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  • Hospido, Laura

    () (Bank of Spain)

  • Zamarro, Gema

    () (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 directly 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 significative joint retirement effect for women of 21 percentage points. For men, the estimated effect is insignificant. 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

  • Hospido, Laura & Zamarro, Gema, 2014. "Retirement Patterns of Couples in Europe," IZA Discussion Papers 7926, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7926
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    Cited by:

    1. Queiroz, Bernardo L. & Souza, Laeticia R., 2017. "Retirement incentives and couple’s retirement decisions in Brazil," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 9(C), pages 1-13.
    2. Pérez, Carlos & Martín-Román, Ángel & Moral, Alfonso, 2020. "Two decades of the complementary leisure effect in Spain," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 15(C).
    3. Bertoni, Marco & Brunello, Giorgio, 2014. "Pappa Ante Portas: The Retired Husband Syndrome in Japan," IZA Discussion Papers 8350, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Vipul Bhatt, 2017. "Cohort Differences in Joint Retirement: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 38(4), pages 475-495, December.
    5. Francesca Carta & Marta De Philippis, 2021. "Working horizon and labour supply: the effect of raising the full retirement age on middle-aged individuals," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1314, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    6. Ciani, Emanuele, 2016. "Retirement, pension eligibility and home production," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 106-120.
    7. Blundell, R. & French, E. & Tetlow, G., 2016. "Retirement Incentives and Labor Supply," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 457-566, Elsevier.
    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. Michael Christl & Dénes Kucsera, 2019. "Actuarial Neutrality and Financial Incentives for Early Retirement in the Austrian Pension System," DANUBE: Law and Economics Review, European Association Comenius - EACO, issue 1, pages 1-22, March.
    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. Sílvia Garcia-Mandicó & Sergi Jiménez-Martín, 2020. "Spillovers in pension incentives and the joint retirement behavior of Spanish couples," Working Papers 2020-13, FEDEA.
    12. Laura Hospido, 2015. "Pension reform and couples' joint retirement decisions," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 142-142, April.
    13. Zang, Emma, 2020. "Spillover effects of a husband's retirement on a woman's health: Evidence from urban China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    14. Michaud, Pierre-Carl & Van Soest, Arthur & Bissonnette, Luc, 2020. "Understanding joint retirement," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 386-401.
    15. Johnsen, Julian Vedeler & Willén, Alexander & Vaage, Kjell, 2020. "Interactions in Public Policies: Spousal Responses and Program Spillovers of Welfare Reforms," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 20/2020, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    16. Mathilde Godard, 2015. "Gaining weight through retirement? Results from the SHARE survey," Post-Print halshs-01521884, HAL.
    17. 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.
    18. Amuedo-Dorantes Catalina & Borra Cristina, 2017. "Retirement Decisions in Recessionary Times: Evidence from Spain," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 17(2), pages 1-21, April.
    19. Müller, Tobias & Shaikh, Mujaheed, 2018. "Your retirement and my health behavior: Evidence on retirement externalities from a fuzzy regression discontinuity design," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 45-59.
    20. 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.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    social security incentives; joint retirement;

    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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