Understanding the Effect of Retirement on Health Using Regression Discontinuity Design

Peter Eibich

No 669, SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research from DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

Abstract: This paper estimates the causal effect of retirement on health, health behavior, and healthcare utilization. Using Regression Discontinuity Design to exploit financial incentives in the German pension system for identification, I investigate a wide range of health behaviors (e.g. alcohol and tobacco consumption, physical activity, diet and sleep) as potential mechanisms. The results show a long-run improvement in health upon retirement. Relief from work-related stress and strain, increased sleep duration and more frequent physical exercise seem to be key mechanisms through which retirement affects health. Moreover, the improvement in health caused by retirement leads to a reduction in healthcare utilization.

Keywords: retirement; health; regression discontinuity design; health behavior; healthcare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 J14 J26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 p.
Date: 2014
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-eur, nep-hea and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.467192.de/diw_sp0669.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Understanding the effect of retirement on health using Regression Discontinuity Design (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp669

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