The Causal Effect of Retirement on Stress in Older Adults in China: A Regression Discontinuity Study
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Population aging in middle-income countries, including China, has resulted in a strong economic incentive to increase the retirement age. These economic incentives should be weighed up against the effects of a later retirement on individuals’ physical and mental health and wellbeing. Using stress as an important measure of mental wellbeing, this study thus aimed to determine the causal effect of retirement on perceived stress. We used data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey in 2015 and adopted a non-parametric regression discontinuity design (RDD) to measure the causal effect of retirement on stress. Stress was assessed using the Perceived Stress Scale – 14. We found that retirement does not have a significant impact on stress. Further analyses showed that retirement may reduce the stress for men and raise stress for women. Though the effects are not statistically significant, the estimated magnitudes among men and women are large and opposite. Thus, the overall null result could be due to the adding up of these opposite effects. More research is needed to confirm this finding in studies with larger sample sizes and to examine other measures of physical and mental health and wellbeing.
JOUR
Chen, Simiao
Geldsetzer, Pascal
Bärnighausen, Till
2020
SSM - Population Health
10
100462
2972