The Review of Economics and Statistics Vol. 93 No. 3 2011

Changes in Consumption at Retirement: Evidence from Panel Data

Emma Aguila¹; Orazio Attanasio^2,3; Costas Meghir^2,3

¹ RAND Corporation · ² Institute for Fiscal Studies · ³ University College London

Abstract

Previous empirical literature has found a sharp decline in consumption during the first years of retirement, implying that individuals do not save enough for their retirement. This phenomenon is called the retirement consumption puzzle. We find no evidence of the retirement consumption puzzle using panel data from 1980 to 2000. Consumption is defined as nondurable expenditure, a more comprehensive measure than only food used in many of the previous studies. We find that food expenditure declines at retirement, which is consistent with previous studies.

DOI

10.1162/rest_a_00140

Volume

93

Issue

3

Pages

1094-1099

Language

en

Sources

openalex crossref

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