Cyclical fluctuations - which affect both asset and labour markets - can have an ambiguous effect on retirement. We explore this empirically using data from the British Household Panel Survey, exploiting small area geographic identifiers to match local house prices, earnings and unemployment to respondents. We match stock prices via the date of interview. Our results show little evidence of any positive wealth effects despite large spatial and temporal variations in asset prices over the period analysed. We find more response to local labour market conditions - increases in unemployment are associated with earlier retirement, while increases in wages delay retirement.
Authors
Research Associate University of Sussex
Richard is an IFS Research Associate, a Part-time Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex and a Visiting Professor of Economics at UCL.
Research Associate University of Bristol
Sarah is a Research Associate at the IFS and Head of the Department of Economics at the University of Bristol with interest in applied microeconomics.
CMPO, University of Bristol
Journal article details
- DOI
- 10.1111/ecca.12133
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Issue
- June 2015
Suggested citation
R, Disney and A, Ratcliffe and S, Smith. (2015). 'Booms, busts and retirement timing' (2015)
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