Joint retirement of couples: Evidence from discontinuities in Denmark

Esteban Garcia-Miralles and Jonathan Leganza

Journal of Public Economics, 2024, vol. 230, issue C

Abstract: We study joint retirement and its underlying determinants. First, we use full-population data from Denmark and a discontinuity design to document joint retirement at the early pension eligibility age. For every 100 individuals who retire when they reach pension eligibility, around 8 of their spouses adjust their behavior to retire at the same time. Next, we investigate mechanisms. We begin by arguing that our estimates are explained primarily by leisure complementarities. We then explore heterogeneity and pathways couples take to retire together. We find that age differences are a fundamental determinant of joint retirement, which is driven by older spouses waiting to retire and claim pension benefits until their younger partners reach pension eligibility as well. We also show that females respond more than males and that secondary earners respond more than primary earners. Finally, we show that a reform increasing eligibility ages induced similar joint retirement spillovers.

Keywords: Joint retirement; Pension eligibility age; Couples labor supply (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D10 H55 J26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272723002189
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Joint Retirement of Couples: Evidence from Discontinuities in Denmark (2021)
Working Paper: Joint Retirement of Couples: Evidence from Discontinuities in Denmark (2021)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:230:y:2024:i:c:s0047272723002189

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2023.105036

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Public Economics is currently edited by R. Boadway and J. Poterba

More articles in Journal of Public Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().