Lifestyle and Time Use: The Impact of Retirement on Health

Based on the data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study(CHARLS) in 2011 and 2013, this paper studied the impact of retirement on male and female workers’ health and its impact mechanism under the mandatory retirement age system in China by using Fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Design(FRDD). The results indicated that retirement increased the probability of men assessing themselves as "healthy" by 25 percentage points and lowered the probability of suffering from chronic diseases for women by 26 percentage points. In terms of mechanism analysis, it was found that the remarkable increase in social interactions after retirement was the main reason for the improvement of health for male retirees, but not the reason for the lower probability of having chronic diseases for female retirees. The findings serve as important references for formulating policies regarding postponing retirement age and flexible retirement.