Healthier lifestyles after retirement in Europe? Evidence from SHARE

This paper investigates changes in health behaviours upon retirement, using data drawn from the Survey of Health Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). By exploiting changes in eligibility rules for early and normal retirement, we identify the causal effect of retiring from work on smoking, alcohol drinking, engagement in physical activity and visits to the general practitioner or specialist. We provide evidence about heterogeneous effects related to gender, education, net wealth, early-life conditions and job characteristics. Results show that changes in health behaviours occur upon retirement and may be a key mechanism through which the latter affects health. We find heterogenous effects related especially to gender, education and job characteristics.