 Spillover effects of a husband's retirement on a woman's health: Evidence from urban ChinaEmma Zang Social Science & Medicine, 2020, vol. 245, issue C Abstract: Despite an increasing number of studies measuring the effect of retirement on individual well-being, research on spillover effects of one spouse's retirement on another spouse's well-being is limited. If such an effect exists but is not considered, it would result in an underestimation of the total retirement effect. This article examines the effect a man's retirement has on his wife's mental and physical health. Using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS), I exploit the large increase in the probability of retirement at the legal retirement age for urban male wage earners in China as a natural experiment. I implement a fuzzy regression discontinuity design to compare the health outcomes of women whose husbands recently retired with those whose husbands are close to retiring. Findings indicate that the retirement of her spouse improves a woman's physical and mental well-being, most likely by increasing the frequency of her social interactions and exercise. Keywords: Retirement; Health; Spousal spillover; China (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:245:y:2020:i:c:s0277953619306793 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112684 Access Statistics for this article Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier |
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