Joint Retirement of Couples: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Arbeitspapier

We estimate and explain the impact of early retirement of husbands on their wives’ probability to retire within one year, using administrative micro panel data that cover the whole Dutch population. We employ an instrumental variable approach in which the retirement choice of husbands is instrumented with eligibility rules for generous early retirement benefits that were temporarily and unexpectedly available to them. We find that early retirement opportunities of husbands increased the wives’ probability to retire by 24.6 percentage points. This is a strong, and robust effect. Partly, wives respond to husbands’ choices at ages when they are themselves likely eligible for early retirement programs.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper ; No. 15-028/V

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Single Equation Models: Single Variables: Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation ; Retirement; Retirement Policies ; Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse ; Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-labor Market Discrimination
• Subject: instruments ; retirement ; couples

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Bloemen, Hans ; Hochguertel, Stefan ; Zweerink, Jochem
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Tinbergen Institute
• (where): Amsterdam and Rotterdam
• (when): 2015

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/107897
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET