Why life gets better after age 50, for some: mental well-being and the social norm of work

Coen van de Kraats (), Titus Galama (), Maarten Lindeboom () and Zichen Deng ()
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Coen van de Kraats: Erasmus University Rotterdam and Tinbergen Institute
Titus Galama: University of Southern California, Center for Economic and Social Research and Department of Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Tinbergen Institute
Maarten Lindeboom: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Centre for Health Economics, Monash University, Tinbergen Institute and IZA
Zichen Deng: School of Economics, University of Amsterdam; FAIR Centre

No 2025-04, Working Papers from Centre for Health Economics, Monash University

Abstract: We provide evidence that the social norm (expectation) that adults work has a substantial detrimental causal effect on the mental well-being of unemployed men in mid-life, as substantial as, e.g., the detriment of being widowed. As their peers in age retire and the social norm weakens, the mental well-being of the unemployed improves. Using data on individuals aged 50+ from 10 European countries, we identify the social norm of work effect using exogenous variation in the earliest eligibility age for old-age public pensions across countries and birth cohorts.

Keywords: mental well-being; social norm of work; retirement institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 I10 I31 J60 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-eur, nep-hea, nep-lab, nep-ltv and nep-soc
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