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Are Retirees More Satisfied? – Anticipation and Adaptation Effects of Retirement on Subjective Well-Being: A Panel Analysis for Germany

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  • Joachim Merz

Abstract

Quality of life and satisfaction with life are of particular importance for individuals as well as for society concerning the “demographic change” with now longer retirement periods. This study will contribute to the life satisfaction discussion and quantifies life satisfaction and pattern of explanation before and after such a prominent life cycle event, the entrance into retirement. In particular, with the individual longitudinal data and 33 waves of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and the appropriate microeconometric causal fixed effects robust panel methods we ask and quantify if actual life satisfaction indeed is decreasing before retirement, is increasing at the entrance into retirement, and is decreasing then after certain periods back to a fore-going level. Thus, we ask if such an anticipation and adaptation pattern– as known from other prominent events – is also to discover for life satisfaction before and after retirement in Germany. Main result: Individual and family situation lift life satisfaction after retirement for many years, the (former) occupational situation, however, absorbs this effect both for pensioners and civil service pensioners. It remains only one period of improvement with close anticipation and adaptation at entering retirement but no furthermore significant change compared to pre-retirement life satisfaction. This holds for pensioners (German pension insurance, GRV) but there is no significant effect at all for civil service pensioners.

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  • Joachim Merz, 2018. "Are Retirees More Satisfied? – Anticipation and Adaptation Effects of Retirement on Subjective Well-Being: A Panel Analysis for Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 986, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp986
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    Cited by:

    1. Merz, Joachim, 2022. "Are Retirees More Satisfied? Anticipation and Adaptation Effects: A Causal Panel Analysis of German Statutory Insured and Civil Service Pensioners," IZA Discussion Papers 15140, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Ansgar Hudde & Marita Jacob, 2023. "There’s More in the Data! Using Month-Specific Information to Estimate Changes Before and After Major Life Events," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1184, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    3. Austen, Siobhan & Kalsi, Jaslin Kaur & Mavisakalyan, Astghik, 2022. "Retirement and the distribution of intra-household wellbeing," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    4. Joachim Merz, 2022. "Are Retirees More Satisfied? Anticipation and Adaptation Effects: A Causal Panel Analysis of German Statutory Insured and Civil Service Pensioners," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1163, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Retirement; life-satisfaction; happiness; retirement; anticipation and adaptation effects; fixed-effect regression; Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP); Germany;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J17 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Value of Life; Foregone Income
    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

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