How Does Voluntary and Involuntary Retirement Affect Psychological Well-Being and Health Status Later in Life?

Sarah E. Tom, University of California, Berkeley
Bernardo L. Queiroz, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

This paper assesses whether voluntary retirees experience better long-term health than involuntary retirees using six waves of the Health and Retirement Study. Some evidence suggests that retirement has a negative effect on well-being. Other findings argue that bad health leads to early retirement. While the literature relating to health and retirement is well-developed, the intersection of health and the timing of retirement has received less attention. We believe that the measures of planned retirement in previous work is limited. We take advantage of a more innovative measure of retirement planning: prospective subjective probability of working.