This paper studies the effect of retirement on health and mortality. In response to increased longevity and tighter public budget constraints, the general trend in developed countries is for Social Security systems to be modified to encourage people to remain in the labor force longer. In this paper, I study the 1983 reforms to the United States Social Security System that raised the retirement age for cohorts born after 1937 to estimate the causal effect of retirement on health and mortality. Combining IV and DID methods, I find that retirement has a positive effect on self-reported bad health and decreases the probability of experiencing limitations in daily activities for men. However, retirement increases the mortality rate by 0.46% for men and 1.4% for women. Heart disease contributes most to the effect on mortality. The different effects on health and mortality point to heterogeneous effects.

本文研究退休对健康和死亡率的影响。为了应对寿命的延长和公共预算约束的收紧，发达国家的总体趋势是修改社会保障制度，以鼓励人们更长时间地留在劳动力队伍中。在本文中，我研究了 1983 年美国社会保障体系改革，该改革提高了 1937 年之后出生群体的退休年龄，以估计退休对健康和死亡率的因果影响。结合 IV 和 DID 方法，我发现退休对自我报告的不良健康状况有积极影响，并降低男性日常活动受限的可能性。然而，退休会使男性死亡率增加 0.46%，女性死亡率增加 1.4%。心脏病对死亡率的影响最大。对健康和死亡率的不同影响表明了异质效应。