Research Group

Labor Demography

At a Glance Projects Publications Team

Project

Determinants and Consequences of Retirement

Conducted by Christian Dudel; Angelo Lorenti, Carla Rowold, Emma Zai, Peter Eibich

Detailed Description

Many high-income countries are raising the retirement age to encourage older workers to remain active in the labor market. However, labor force participation at older ages is closely intertwined with health and wealth. Good health is a prerequisite for working longer, while wealth shapes retirement decisions. Thus, it is important to understand how health and wealth shape labor market trajectories at these ages. Moreover, it is important to examine how retirement affects the behavior of older people in order to fully understand the potential externalities of longer working lives. We therefore study how health and wealth affect the timing of labor force exits among older workers, and we look at the effects of retirement on the behavior of older people. We disentangle the complex relationship between health, wealth, and labor market participation using state-of-the-art methods for causal inference, such as regression discontinuity design techniques.

Publications

Rowold, C.:

Full-time employment is all that matters? Quantifying the role of relevant and gender-exclusive life-course experiences for gender pension gaps

Social Forces 104:4, 1337–1362. (2026)    

Lorenti, A.; De Rose, A.; Racioppi, F.:

Volunteering during early retirement reduces depression

Social Science and Medicine 367:117790, 1–12. (2025)    

Kapelle, N.; Rowold, C.:

Uncovering what matters: family life course aspects and personal wealth in late working age

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2024-023. (2024)    

Lorenti, A.; De Rose, A.; Racioppi, F.:

Volunteering during early retirement reduces depression

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2024-038. (2024)    

Rowold, C.:

Differences in gender pension gaps in public and private pensions in West Germany: what role do work-family life courses play?

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2024-015. (2024)    

Eibich, P.; Lorenti, A.; Mosca, I.:

Does retirement affect voluntary work provision? Evidence from England, Ireland and the U.S.

Labour Economics 76:102185, 1–16. (2022)    

Kanabar, R.; Mazur, A.; Plum, A.; Schmied, J.:

Correlates of testosterone change as men age

The Aging Male 25:1, 29–40. (2022)    

Hale, J. M.; Bijlsma, M. J.; Lorenti, A.:

Does postponing retirement affect cognitive function? A counterfactual experiment to disentangle life course risk factors

SSM-Population Health 15:100855, 1–12. (2021)    

Eibich, P.; Goldzahl, L.:

Does retirement affect secondary preventive care use? Evidence from breast cancer screening

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2020-011. (2020)    

Eibich, P.; Kanabar, R.; Plum, A.; Schmied, J.:

In and out of unemployment - labour market dynamics and the role of testosterone

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2020-033. (2020)    

Eibich, P.; Lorenti, A.; Mosca, I.:

Does retirement affect voluntary work provision? Evidence from England, Ireland and the U.S.

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2020-015. (2020)    

Eibich, P.; Siedler, T.:

Retirement, intergenerational time transfers, and fertility

European Economic Review 124:103392, 1–41. (2020)    

Hale, J. M.; Bijlsma, M. J.; Lorenti, A.:

Does postponing retirement affect cognitive function? A counterfactual experiment to disentangle life course risk factors

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2020-013. (2020)    

Pedron, S.; Maier, W.; Peters, A.; Linkohr, B.; Meisinger, C.; Rathmann, W.; Eibich, P.; Schwettmann, L.:

The effect of retirement on biomedical and behavioral risk factors for cardiovascular and metabolic disease

Economics and Human Biology 38:100893, 1–14. (2020)