IS LATE RETIREMENT A HEALTH RISK IN SWEDEN

Recent research argues that pension reforms increased social inequalities since some groups might need to work longer for financial reasons. Involuntary late retirement can play a role for changes after retirement with regard to health and wellbeing. I use the first two waves from the “Health, Ageing and Retirement Transitions in Sweden” (HEARTS) survey to analyze retirement transitions and changes in health and wellbeing depending on the age of retirement. The cross-sectional results indicate that later retirement is related to worse health for lower educated, while there are no differences with regard to retirement age for higher educated individuals. This picture is even more pronounced among those with low control over their retirement timing. This study aims to reach a better understanding of retirement effects on health by including retirement age. Discussions on increasing retirement ages should acknowledge health differences by educational level among those who (have to) retire late.