Your Retirement and My Health Behavior: Evidence on Retirement Externalities from a fuzzy regression discontinuity design

Abstract

This paper presents evidence on intra-household retirement externalities by assessing the causal effect of spousal retirement on various health behaviors and health status across 19 European countries. We identify partner’s and own retirement effects by applying a fuzzy regression discontinuity design using retirement eligibility as exogenous instruments for spousal and own retirement status. We find significant increases in the frequency and intensity of alcohol consumption combined with a significant decrease in moderate physical activities as a response to partner’s retirement. In line with the existing literature, we find that own retirement has significant positive effects on engaging in moderate and vigorous physical activities but also leads to a significant increase in the frequency of alcohol intake. Overall, subjective health is negatively affected by spousal retirement and positively by own retirement.