Is Retirement Depressing?: Labor Force Inactivity and Psychological Well-Being in Later Life / Kerwin Kofi Charles.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Charles, Kerwin Kofi.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w9033.

NBER working paper series no. w9033

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Is Retirement Depressing?

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2002.

Summary:

This paper assesses how retirement - defined as permanent labor force non-participation in a man's mature years - affects psychological welfare. The raw correlation between retirement and well-being is negative. But this does not imply causation. In particular, people with idiosyncratically low well-being, or people facing transitory shocks which adversely affect well-being might disproportionately select into retirement. Discontinuous retirement incentives in the Social Security System, and changes in laws affecting mandatory retirement and Social Security benefits allows the exogenous effect of retirement on happiness to be estimated. The paper finds that the direct effect of retirement on well-being is positive once the fact that retirement and well being are simultaneously determined is accounted for.

Notes:

Print version record

June 2002.