Effects of retirement on cognitive functioning: Evidence from biomedical and administrative insurance claims data

Henrik Bergschneider, Robin Kottmann, Hendrik Schmitz and Matthias Westphal

No 1131, Ruhr Economic Papers from RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen

Abstract: We study the effects of retirement on cognitive functioning among women aged 63 to 67 by exploiting a German retirement reform that raised the early retirement age for women born after 1951 by three years, from 60 to 63. Our indicators of cognitive functioning are experimental measures (word recall, semantic fluency, and the Stroop test) from a large biomedical data set, as well as the diagnosis of cognitive disorders from administrative health insurance claims. We find reductions of around 12% of a standard deviation per year in retirement for measures of fluid intelligence and of an insignificant 6% for crystallized intelligence. The diagnosis of cognitive disorders remains unaffected.

Keywords: Cognitive abilities; retirement; pension reform (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C31 J14 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age and nep-neu
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:rwirep:311302

DOI: 10.4419/96973313

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