The Social Costs of Health-related Early Retirement in Germany: Evidence from the German Socio-Economic Panel

Using data from the German Socio-economic Panel, we study how stratification in health and income contributes to the social cost of health-related early retirement, the balance of lost labour income and health benefits. On average, early retirees improve their health by almost two thirds of the loss...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of contextual economics : Schmollers Jahrbuch 2012-04, Vol.132 (2), p.323-357
Main Authors: Hostenkamp, Gisela, Stolpe, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cost analysis
Early retirement
Federal Republic of Germany
Germany
Health care
Health Care Costs
Panel data
Retirement
Social costs
Social security
Socioeconomic development
Technological change
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Using data from the German Socio-economic Panel, we study how stratification in health and income contributes to the social cost of health-related early retirement, the balance of lost labour income and health benefits. On average, early retirees improve their health by almost two thirds of the loss suffered during the last four working years. We calibrate counterfactual scenarios and find keeping all workers in very good health, the highest of five categories of self-assessed health, would delay the average retirement age by more than three years and reduce the social costs by more than 20 percent. JEL Classification: H55, I12, O15
ISSN:2568-7603
1439-121X
2568-762X
DOI:10.3790/schm.132.2.323