Does retirement kill you? evidence from early retirement widows

The effect that health has on the retirement decision has long been studied. We examine thereverse relationship, whether retirement has a direct impact on later-life health. To identify thecausal relationship, we use early retirement window offers to instrument for retirement. We findno negative effects of early retirement on men’s health, and if anything, a temporary increase inself-reported health and improvements in health of highly educated workers. While this isconsistent with previous literature using Social Security ages as instruments, we also find thatanticipation of retirement might be important, and bias the previous estimates downwards