Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/216896 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
GLO Discussion Paper No. 536
Publisher: 
Global Labor Organization (GLO), Essen
Abstract: 
This paper presents robust evidence that retirement causally improves overall life satisfaction which is subsequently explained by improvements in satisfaction with one’s financial situation, free time, health, and participation in local community activities. Furthermore, while the positive wellbeing impact of retirement is sizable initially, it fades after the first 3 years. We find that the improvements in financial satisfaction upon retirement are only observed for low-income individuals. However, the wellbeing impact of retirement does not differ by gender, educational, occupational, economic or marital backgrounds. We also explore several potential explanations for our findings. This paper employs a fixed effect instrumental variable model, which exploits the discontinuity in the eligibility ages for state pension to construct an instrument for retirement, and 18 waves of high-quality Australian panel data. The results also suggest that failing to adequately account for the endogeneity of retirement would result in a downward-biased estimate of a positive wellbeing impact of retirement.
Subjects: 
Retirement
Wellbeing
Life Satisfaction
Instrumental Variable
Age Threshold
Australia
JEL: 
I31
J14
J26
H55
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.