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Retirement, social support and mental well-being: a couple-level analysis

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  • Nathan Kettlewell

    (University of Technology Sydney
    ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families Over the Life Course
    Institute of Labor Economics (IZA))

  • Jack Lam

    (ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families Over the Life Course
    University of Queensland)

Abstract

Social support is increasingly acknowledged as an important resource for promoting well-being. We test whether social support changes around retirement. We also examine whether social support moderates dynamics in mental well-being around retirement and consider both own and spouse’s retirement drawing on a unique longitudinal, couple-level data set from Australia. We observe descriptively no effect of own or spouse’s retirement on social support. However, those with high social support do experience a small but statistically significant improvement in mental well-being post retirement. Using pension eligibility as an instrument, we find that own retirement causally improves mental well-being for women and by a similar degree for those with low/high social support. We also estimate responses to life satisfaction and find evidence that spill-over benefits from spousal retirement are larger for individuals with low social support.

Suggested Citation

  • Nathan Kettlewell & Jack Lam, 2022. "Retirement, social support and mental well-being: a couple-level analysis," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 23(3), pages 511-535, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eujhec:v:23:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s10198-021-01374-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s10198-021-01374-1
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    Cited by:

    1. Andrew E Clark & Rong Zhu, 2024. "Taking Back Control? Quasi-Experimental Evidence on the Impact of Retirement on Locus of Control," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(660), pages 1465-1493.
    2. Joe Spearing, 2024. "The effect of retirement eligibility on mental health in the United Kingdom: Heterogeneous effects by occupation," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(8), pages 1621-1648, August.
    3. Nguyen, Ha Trong & Mitrou, Francis & Zubrick, Stephen R., 2024. "Retirement, housing mobility, downsizing and neighbourhood quality - A causal investigation," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    4. Jan C. van Ours, 2022. "How Retirement Affects Mental Health, Cognitive Skills and Mortality; An Overview of Recent Empirical Evidence," De Economist, Springer, vol. 170(3), pages 375-400, August.
    5. Jinjing Ma & Min Lei & Huan Yu & Rui Li, 2023. "A Study on Temporal and Spatial Differences in Women’s Well-Being in an Ecologically Vulnerable Area in Northwest China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-24, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Retirement; Social support; Australia; Couples; Mental well-being;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor

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