[Preliminary Draft 12/3/04: Please do not circulate or cite] Effect of Retirement on Weight among the Near Elderly

The obesity epidemic and rapidly increasing retirement-aged population have raised concerns about the financing of public health and Social Security programs. After controlling for the endogeneity of retirement with unobserved individual heterogeneity using fixed effects with instrumental variables method, this study finds strong evidence of weight gain from retirement. Retirement is weight gaining as compared to working status regardless of job types, but reduced working-hour among workers does not lead to weight response. Having lower lifetime earnings exacerbates the unhealthy increase in weight caused by retirement. The findings suggest that interventions promoting weight control health behavior and providing flexible working hours to the targeted population will improve the welfare of the near elderly. JEL classification: I12