What are the health effects of retirement?

Summary This article focuses on the effect of the transition to retirement on health. On the basis of a dual analysis of the theoretical and empirical literature, we attempt to identify the main channels through which the transition to retirement can influence health status. On the theoretical level, we show to what extent individuals have an interest in investing or disinvesting in their health over the life cycle and to what extent the passage to retirement influences the evolution of this health capital. A review of the international empirical literature highlights the difficulty of measuring the impact of retirement on health, notably because of biases in the measurement of health states and the existence of possible reverse causality. Using the 2013-2016 Employment Surveys, we illustrate the difficulty of identifying the impact of retirement on the health of individuals. Our results highlight a positive effect of retirement on self-reported health status.