IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/kud/kuieca/2004_19.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How Stressful is Retirement? New Evidence from a Longitudinal, Fixed-effects Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Mads Meier Jæger

    (Danish National Institute of Social Research, Copenhagen)

  • Anders Holm

    (Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen)

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of retirement on psychological well-being. Findings from previous research in this field are inconsistent, as both positive, negative, and sometimes no effect of retirement on well-being is reported. In the paper we suggest that the divergent results may arise from the mixing of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, problems with the size and quality of existing longitudinal data, and the statistical methods used to analyze the impact of retirement on well-being. In the paper we propose to deploy the fixed-effect estimator whichs provides consistent estimates of the effect of retirement on well-being, even when retirement is correlated with other observed and unobserved explanatory variables. Using a large (N = 4,634) and nationally representative panel data set with elderly Danish respondents, we find that retirement does not have any significant effect on well-being. When estimating separate model for men and women we find indications (p = .06) that men experience a decline in well-being as a consequence of retirement, while women are unaffected by retirement. Our findings for men would substantiate the crisis theory perspective that holds that retirement implies a loss of important social roles associated with labor market participation. Several suggestions for future research are also discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Mads Meier Jæger & Anders Holm, "undated". "How Stressful is Retirement? New Evidence from a Longitudinal, Fixed-effects Analysis," CAM Working Papers 2004-19, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Centre for Applied Microeconometrics, revised Sep 2004.
    • Handle: RePEc:kud:kuieca:2004_19
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.ku.dk/cam/wp0910/wp0203/2004-19.pdf/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Amy Mehraban Pienta & Mark D. Hayward, 2002. "Who Expects to Continue Working After Age 62? The Retirement Plans of Couples," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 57(4), pages 199-208.
    2. Ashenfelter, Orley C, 1978. "Estimating the Effect of Training Programs on Earnings," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 60(1), pages 47-57, February.
    3. Thomas, Paula D. & Garry, Philip J. & Goodwin, Jean M. & Goodwin, James S., 1985. "Social bonds in a healthy elderly sample: Characteristics and associated variables," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 365-369, January.
    4. Dwyer, Debra Sabatini & Mitchell, Olivia S., 1999. "Health problems as determinants of retirement: Are self-rated measures endogenous?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 173-193, April.
    5. Jungmeen E. Kim & Phyllis Moen, 2002. "Retirement Transitions, Gender, and Psychological Well-Being," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 57(3), pages 212-222.
    6. Olsen, Rolf Bang & Olsen, Jørn & Gunner-Svensson, Finn & Waldstrøm, Bodil, 1991. "Social networks and longevity. A 14 year follow-up study among elderly in Denmark," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 33(10), pages 1189-1195, January.
    7. Gary W. Evans & Elyse Kantrowitz & Paul Eshelman, 2002. "Housing Quality and Psychological Well-Being Among the Elderly Population," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 57(4), pages 381-383.
    8. Dahl, Espen & Birkelund, Gunn Elisabeth, 1997. "Health inequalities in later life in a social democratic welfare state," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 44(6), pages 871-881, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maja Tadic & Wido Oerlemans & Arnold Bakker & Ruut Veenhoven, 2013. "Daily Activities and Happiness in Later Life: The Role of Work Status," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(5), pages 1507-1527, October.
    2. Morten Blekesaune & Thomas Hansen, 2021. "Human Values and Retirement Experiences: a Longitudinal Analysis of Norwegian Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 157(3), pages 1001-1019, October.
    3. Latif, Ehsan, 2011. "The impact of retirement on psychological well-being in Canada," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 373-380, August.
    4. Maes, Marjan & Stammen, Benjamin, 2011. "The impact of (early) retirement on the subsequent physical and mental health of the retired: a survey among general practitioners in Belgium," Working Papers 2011/03, Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel, Faculteit Economie en Management.
    5. Milena Nikolova & Carol Graham, 2014. "Employment, late-life work, retirement, and well-being in Europe and the United States," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-30, December.
    6. Esteban Calvo & Natalia Sarkisian & Christopher Tamborini, 2011. "Searching for schools in a low quality market: Evidence from Chile," Working Papers 17, Facultad de Economía y Empresa, Universidad Diego Portales.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thomas Barnay, 2016. "Health, work and working conditions: a review of the European economic literature," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 17(6), pages 693-709, July.
    2. Birgit Leimer, 2017. "No “Honeymoon Phase” Whose health benefits from retirement and when," Working Papers 1718, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    3. Monika Riedel & Helmut Hofer & Birgit Wögerbauer, 2015. "Determinants for the transition from work into retirement in Europe," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-19, December.
    4. Hanne Preter & Dorien Looy & Dimitri Mortelmans, 2015. "Retirement Timing of Dual-Earner Couples in 11 European Countries? A Comparison of Cox and Shared Frailty Models," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 396-407, September.
    5. Даниелян, Владимир, 2016. "Детерминанты Пенсионного Возраста: Обзор Исследований [Determinants of Retirement Age: A Review of Research]," MPRA Paper 73865, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Harrison Hong & Ilan Kremer & Jeffrey D. Kubik & Jianping Mei & Michael Moses, 2015. "Ordering, revenue and anchoring in art auctions," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 46(1), pages 186-216, March.
    7. Raúl Junior Sandoval-Gómez & Jesús Antonio Álvarez-Cedillo & Edgar Ivan Castellanos-Sanchez & Teodoro Álvarez-Sánchez & Rebeca Perez-Garcia, 2023. "Development of a technological innovation and social entrepreneurship training program to generate services in a Mexican public entity," Eastern-European Journal of Enterprise Technologies, PC TECHNOLOGY CENTER, vol. 6(13 (126)), pages 74-87, December.
    8. Angrisani, Marco & Atella, Vincenzo & Brunetti, Marianna, 2018. "Public health insurance and household portfolio Choices: Unravelling financial “Side Effects” of Medicare," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 198-212.
    9. Matias Busso & Patrick Kline, 2008. "Do Local Economic Development Programs Work? Evidence from the Federal Empowerment Zone Program," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1639, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    10. Scott A. Imberman, 2011. "Achievement and Behavior in Charter Schools: Drawing a More Complete Picture," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(2), pages 416-435, May.
    11. David Card, 2022. "Design-Based Research in Empirical Microeconomics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(6), pages 1773-1781, June.
    12. Ichimura, Hidehiko & Todd, Petra E., 2007. "Implementing Nonparametric and Semiparametric Estimators," Handbook of Econometrics, in: J.J. Heckman & E.E. Leamer (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 6, chapter 74, Elsevier.
    13. Po-Wen Ku & Kenneth Fox & Chun-Yi Chang & Wen-Jung Sun & Li-Jung Chen, 2014. "Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Associations of Categories of Physical Activities with Dimensions of Subjective Well-Being in Taiwanese Older Adults," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(3), pages 705-718, July.
    14. Gabrielle Wills, 2016. "Principal leadership changes in South Africa: Investigating their consequences for school performance," Working Papers 01/2016, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    15. Mitra, Sophie, 2010. "Disability Cash Transfers in the Context of Poverty and Unemployment: The Case of South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 1692-1709, December.
    16. Michael Lechner & Ruth Miquel & Conny Wunsch, 2011. "Long‐Run Effects Of Public Sector Sponsored Training In West Germany," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 742-784, August.
    17. Apouey, Bénédicte H. & Guven, Cahit & Senik, Claudia, 2019. "Retirement and Unexpected Health Shocks," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 116-123.
    18. Verónica Amarante & Marco Manacorda & Edward Miguel & Andrea Vigorito, 2016. "Do Cash Transfers Improve Birth Outcomes? Evidence from Matched Vital Statistics, Program, and Social Security Data," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 8(2), pages 1-43, May.
    19. Marini, Andrea, 2024. "Updating the retirement-consumption puzzle in Italy: who are the most affected?," Working Paper Series 2936, European Central Bank.
    20. Eric French & John Bailey Jones, 2017. "Health, Health Insurance, and Retirement: A Survey," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 9(1), pages 383-409, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    retirement; psychological well-being; gender; methodology; fixed-effect model;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • 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

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kud:kuieca:2004_19. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Thomas Hoffmann (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/camkudk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.