Gaining weight through retirement? Results from the SHARE survey

Abstract

This paper estimates the causal impact of retirement on the Body Mass Index (BMI) of adults aged 50-69 years old, on the probability of being either overweight or obese and on the probability of being obese. Based on the 2004, 2006 and 2010-2011 waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), our identification strategy exploits variation in European Early Retirement Ages (ERAs) and stepwise increases in ERAs in Austria and Italy between 2004 and 2011 to examine an exogenous shock to retirement behavior. Our results show that retirement induced by discontinuous incentives in early retirement schemes causes a 12-percentage point increase in the probability of being obese among men within a two- to four-year period. We find that the impact of retirement is highly non-linear and mostly affects the right-hand side of the male BMI distribution. Additional results show that this pattern is driven by men retiring from strenuous jobs and by those who were already at risk of obesity. In contrast, no significant results are found among women.

Understanding the Effect of Retirement on Health Using Regression Discontinuity Design

“…While both the finding of higher physical activity and increased body weight is in line with earlier studies (e.g. Godard, 2013), this appears to be counterintuitive, given the generally positive effect of retirement on health. The seeming contradiction can be resolved by considering that the Body Mass Index does not discriminate between healthy and unhealthy mass.…”

Age and gender differential relationship between employment status and body mass index among middle-aged and elderly adults: a cross-sectional study

“…The relationship between employment status and obesity has been analysed in several studies. [28][29][30][31] The employed showed higher proportion of obesity compared with the unemployed in a Korean adults group. 28 Similarly, the retirement from strenuous job is highly related to BMI.…”

“…28 Similarly, the retirement from strenuous job is highly related to BMI. 29 Conversely, another study presented that employment was less associated with BMI or non-significant. 30 Also obesity increases the probability of unemployment.…”

The effects of increasing the normal retirement age on health care utilization and mortality

“…The most frequently used instrument is age-specific retirement incentives, such as early retirement windows or eligibility age thresholds. This strategy has been used both in cross-country studies (e.g., Rohwedder et al 2010;Sahlgren 2012;Heller-Sahlgren 2017;Mazzona andPeracchi 2012, 2017;Coe and Zamarro 2011;Godard 2016) and in within-country studies (e.g., Charles 2004; Bound and Waidmann 2007;Neuman 2008;Bonsang et al 2012;Gorry et al 2015;Behncke 2012). The identifying assumption is that the instruments affect health only indirectly through their effects on the age of retirement.…”