Retirement Pathways' Effect on Physical and Mental Health: Evidence from Japan

Few studies have used rigorous causal analysis to examine the difference in health effects between abrupt and gradual transitions from full-time employment to full retirement.

Data were obtained from 10,253 individuals aged 50 years and older from the 2005-2019 Longitudinal Survey of Middle-aged and Older Adults conducted in Japan. An instrumental variable approach was used to determine the causal relationship between retirement pathways and health by exploiting the public pension eligibility age as the instrument.

Abruptly retired individuals were more likely to have physical limitation and less likely to have depression than those not yet retired. In contrast, those who fully retired through a gradual transition were less likely to have physical limitation and more likely to have depression than those not yet retired.

Retirement pathways have different effects on physical and mental health, providing important implication for labor and health policies in aging societies.