Retirement and cognitive abilities: Evidence from the German early retirement age reform for women
Journal of Health Economics · 2026 · Henrik Bergschneider、Robin Kottmann、Hendrik Schmitz、Matthias Westphal
中文摘要
我们利用德国一项退休改革，研究退休对 63 至 67 岁女性认知功能的影响。该改革将 1951 年以后出生女性的提前退休年龄提高了三年，从 60 岁提高到 63 岁。我们的认知功能指标包括来自一个大型生物医学数据集的客观认知测试得分（词语回忆、语义流畅性和斯特鲁普测试），以及来自行政健康保险理赔的认知障碍诊断。我们发现，退休每增加一年，流体智力指标下降约 13% 个标准差，而晶体智力不受影响。这些估计反映了改革对资格临界点附近遵从者退休时长所导致的变动。相比之下，退休年数增加不影响认知障碍的诊断，并减少了对痴呆相关风险因素（如高血压、抑郁和睡眠问题）的诊断。健康结果的改善表明，认知衰退并非由健康恶化所驱动，而可能源于离开工作后认知投入的减少。
Abstract
We study the effects of retirement on cognitive functioning among women aged 63 to 67 by exploiting a German retirement reform that raised the early retirement age for women born after 1951 by three years, from 60 to 63. Our indicators of cognitive functioning are objective cognitive test scores (word recall, semantic fluency, and the Stroop test) from a large biomedical dataset, as well as the diagnosis of cognitive disorders from administrative health insurance claims. We find reductions of around 13% of a standard deviation per year in retirement for measures of fluid intelligence, whereas crystallized intelligence remains unaffected. These estimates reflect the reform-induced shift in retirement duration for compliers around the eligibility cutoff. In contrast, additional years in retirement do not affect diagnosis of cognitive disorder and decrease diagnoses of dementia-related risk factors such as hypertension, depression, and sleep problems. The improvement in health outcomes suggests that cognitive decline is not driven by health deterioration but might possibly be due to reduced cognitive engagement after leaving work.