The short-term effects of retirement on health within couples: Evidence from France.

Abstract This paper investigates the short-term effects of transition into retirement on health within couples using French household data. We rely on a semi-parametric difference-in-differences method to account for the endogeneity of the retirement decision. We compare the health trajectories of respondents who retire to those of respondents who remain employed over the same period after balancing their pre-retirement characteristics using a matching procedure. We also look at potential spillover effects within the couple by comparing health changes for spouses of respondents who retire to those of respondents who remain employed. We find that transition into retirement has a short-term beneficial effect on respondents' self-assessed health. Conversely, we fail to find any significant effect of respondents' retirement on their spouses' health. Highlights • In France, retirement tends to improve individuals' self-assessed health in the short run. • This result holds only for workers employed in jobs with low physical burden. • Respondents' retirement decision has no significant effect on their spouses' health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]