The impact of spousal and own retirement on health: Evidence from urban China

Xi Chen

World Development, 2022, vol. 159, issue C

Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of spousal and own retirement on health in urban China. To identify the causal impact of retirement on the health outcomes of the couple, we exploit the discontinuity in retirement rate at the gender-specific legal retirement ages, and apply a fuzzy regression discontinuity design using data from four waves of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. The estimates suggest that spousal retirement would exert significant influence on an individual’s health and health behaviour. We also find that the health effects of spousal and own retirement exhibit different patterns for men and women. Men’s self-rated health and subjective well-being tend to be negatively affected by their own retirement, while women’s physical and mental health are both positively influenced by the retirement of their husbands. The retirement-induced change in marital bargaining environment may serve as one underlying mechanism for the retirement effects on health.

Keywords: Health; Retirement externalities; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 J26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:159:y:2022:i:c:s0305750x22002157

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.106025

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