The Mental Health Effects of Retirement

Matteo Picchio and Jan C. van Ours ()
Additional contact information
Jan C. van Ours: Erasmus School of Economics

No 12791, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We study the retirement effects on mental health using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design based on the eligibility age to the state pension in the Netherlands. We find that the mental effects are heterogeneous by gender and marital status. Retirement of partnered men positively affects mental health of both themselves and their partners. Single men retiring experience a drop in mental health. Female retirement has hardly any effect on their own mental health or the mental health of their partners. Part of the effects seem to be driven by loneliness after retirement.

Keywords: happiness; well-being; health; retirement; regression discontinuity design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H55 J14 J26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 52 pages
Date: 2019-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-hap, nep-hea and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published - revised version published in: De Economist , 2020, 168, 419-452

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp12791.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Mental Health Effects of Retirement (2020)
Working Paper: THE MENTAL HEALTH EFFECTS OF RETIREMENT (2019)
Working Paper: The Mental Health Effects of Retirement (2019)
Working Paper: The Mental Health Effects of Retirement (2019)
Working Paper: The Mental Health Effects of Retirement (2019)
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:iza:izadps:dp12791

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().