Wealth Shocks and Retirement Timing: Evidence from the Nineties

This paper explores whether the timing of retirement responds to unexpected changes in wealth. The period of the 1990s allows a unique examination of this question because of the large and unexpected capital gains realized by many households. Using the 1992 through 1998 waves of the Health and Retirement Study, and two different identification strategies, I find evidence consistent with the theoretical expectations of wealth effects for men. Using panel data on savings and wealth I estimate the elasticity of observed retirement flows between 1996 and 1998 with respect to wealth is between 0.39 and 0.50 for men.