Retirement, social support and mental well-being: a couple-level analysis

Nathan Kettlewell and Jack Lam
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Jack Lam: ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families Over the Life Course

The European Journal of Health Economics, 2022, vol. 23, issue 3, No 10, 535 pages

Abstract: Abstract Social support is increasingly acknowledged as an important resource for promoting well-being. We test whether social support changes around retirement. We also examine whether social support moderates dynamics in mental well-being around retirement and consider both own and spouse’s retirement drawing on a unique longitudinal, couple-level data set from Australia. We observe descriptively no effect of own or spouse’s retirement on social support. However, those with high social support do experience a small but statistically significant improvement in mental well-being post retirement. Using pension eligibility as an instrument, we find that own retirement causally improves mental well-being for women and by a similar degree for those with low/high social support. We also estimate responses to life satisfaction and find evidence that spill-over benefits from spousal retirement are larger for individuals with low social support.

Keywords: Retirement; Social support; Australia; Couples; Mental well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H55 I10 J14 J2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Working Paper: Retirement, Social Support and Mental Wellbeing: A Couple-level Analysis (2020)
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DOI: 10.1007/s10198-021-01374-1

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