The Influence of Retiree Health Benefits on Retirement Patterns

James Marton and Stephen Woodbury

No 10-163, Upjohn Working Papers from W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research

Abstract: We estimate the effect of employer offers of retiree health benefits (RHBs) on the timing of retirement using a sample of Health and Retirement Study (HRS) men observed over a period of up to 12 years. We hypothesize that the effect of RHBs differs for workers of different ages—a hypothesis we can test now that the main HRS cohort has aged sufficiently. We apply three wellknown panel data estimators and find that, for men in their 50s, RHBs have little or no effect on retirement decisions; however, a substantial effect emerges for men in their early 60s. We use simulations to illustrate how RHBs alter retirement patterns.

Keywords: Retirement; Health Insurance; Employee Benefits; Panel Data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D14 I18 J26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-hea, nep-ias and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://research.upjohn.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?art ... ext=up_workingpapers (application/pdf)
This material is copyrighted. Permission is required to reproduce any or all parts.

Related works:
Journal Article: Retiree Health Benefits as Deferred Compensation (2013)
Working Paper: Retiree Health Benefits as Deferred Compensation: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study (2012)
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:upj:weupjo:10-163

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Upjohn Working Papers from W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research 300 S. Westnedge Ave. Kalamazoo, MI 49007 USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().