Retirement and health: Evidence from England.

This paper utilizes census records, inpatient records, comprehensive surveys, and mortality records from England to trace out the effect of reaching retirement age on retirement status and health outcomes. Applying a regression discontinuity design leveraging the pension age, I find that retirement substantially improves well-being and reported health. I find no immediate effect of retirement on behavioral outcomes and no evidence of changes to cognitive ability, utilization, or mortality. While prior literature has considered the effects of retirement on specific outcomes, this paper systematically examines the full range of health-related outcomes with administrative and survey data in a unified context. Published by Elsevier B.V.