Journal of Labor Economics 2025

Why Life Gets Better after Age 50, for Some: Mental Well-Being and the Social Norm of Work

Coen van de Kraats; T. J. Galama^1,2,3; Maarten Lindeboom^2,4,3; Zichen Deng^5,6

¹ University of Southern California · ² Tinbergen Institute · ³ Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam · ⁴ Monash University · ⁵ University of Amsterdam · ⁶ Norwegian School of Economics

Abstract

We provide evidence that the social norm (expectation) that adults work has a substantial detrimental causal effect on the mental well-being of unemployed men in mid-life, as substantial as, e.g., the detriment of being widowed. As their peers in age retire and the social norm weakens, the mental well-being of the unemployed improves. Using data on individuals aged 50+ from 10 European countries, we identify the social norm of work effect using exogenous variation in the earliest eligibility age for old-age public pensions across countries and birth cohorts.

DOI

10.1086/737772

Language

en

Sources

semanticscholar openalex crossref

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