Fatal Attraction? Access to Early Retirement and Mortality

Andreas Kuhn (), Jean-Philipe Wuellrich and Josef Zweimüller ()

No 2010-08, NRN working papers from The Austrian Center for Labor Economics and the Analysis of the Welfare State, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria

Abstract: We estimate the causal effect of early retirement on mortality for blue-collar workers. To overcome the problem of endogenous selection, we exploit an exogenous change in unemployment insurance rules in Austria that allowed workers in eligible regions to withdraw from the workforce up to 3.5 years earlier than those in non-eligible regions. For males, instrumental-variable estimates show a significant 2.4 percentage points (about 13%) increase in the probability of dying before age 67. We do not find any adverse effect of early retirement on mortality for females. Death causes indicate a significantly higher incidence of cardiovascular disorders among eligible workers, suggesting that changes in health-related behavior explain increased mortality among male early retirees.

Keywords: early retirement; mortality; premature death; health behavior; endogeneity; instrumental variable (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I1 J14 J26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 57 pages
Date: 2010-08
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (49)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Fatal Attraction? Access to Early Retirement and Mortality (2010)
Working Paper: Fatal Attraction? Access to Early Retirement and Mortality (2010)
Working Paper: Fatal attraction? Access to early retirement and mortality (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jku:nrnwps:2010_08

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