Effects of working part-time and full-time on depression in old age

As retirement ages rise, many older adults are expected to work longer. However, not everyone can or wants to remain in full-time employment, making partial retirement an increasingly important pathway. This raises the question of how part-time work affects health, relative to both full-time work and full retirement. We analyze the mental-health outcomes of older adults in Europe, distinguishing between part-time workers, full-time workers, and retirees. After controlling for unobserved individual heterogeneity, we find that part-time employment deteriorates mental health to the same extent as full-time employment. Our findings suggest that reducing working hours at older ages does not provide additional mental-health benefits, whereas retirement appears to decrease depressive symptoms.