Retirement and Cognitive Development: Are the Retired Really Inactive?

Andries De grip; Arnaud Dupuy; Jelle Jolles; Martin Van boxtel

Retirement and Cognitive Development: Are the Retired Really Inactive?

Andries De grip, Arnaud Dupuy, Jelle Jolles, Martin Van boxtel

Research output: Working paper

22 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This paper uses longitudinal test data to analyze the relation between retirement and cognitive development. Controlling for individual fixed effects and lagged cognition, we find that retirees face greater declines in information processing speed than those who remain employed. However, remarkably, their cognitive flexibility declines less, an effect that appears to be persistent 6 years after retirement. Both effects of retirement on cognitive development are comparable to the effect of a five to six-year age difference. Controlling for changes in blood pressure, which are negatively related to cognitive flexibility, we still find lower declines in cognitive flexibility for retirees. Since the decline in information processing speed after retirement holds particularly for the low educated, activating these persons after retirement could lower the social costs of an aging society.

Original language	English
Publisher	CEPS/INSTEAD
Number of pages	40
Publication status	Published - 2013

Publication series

Name	Working Papers
Publisher	CEPS/INSTEAD
No.	2013-11

Keywords

Cognitive decline
Labor market activity
Retirement

Access to Document

Working Paper n°2013-11Final published version, 952 KB

2 Working paper
1 Article

On Input Market Frictions and Estimation of Factors' Demand.
Dupuy, A. & Sorensen, T., 1 Jan 2014, In: Southern Economic Journal. 80, 3, p. 772-781 10 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Resource Windfalls, Optimal Public Investment and Redistribution: The Role of Total Factor Productivity and Administrative Capacity
Arezki, R., Dupuy, A. & Gelb, A., 2013, CEPS/INSTEAD, 36 p. (Working Papers; no. 2013-12).
Research output: Working paper

Open Access
File
The assignment of workers to tasks with endogenous supply of skills
Dupuy, A., 2013, CEPS/INSTEAD, 32 p. (Working Papers; no. 2013-04).
Research output: Working paper

Open Access
File

Cite this

@techreport{983cea3e7b1746ae8af72ae18d4afd78,

title = "Retirement and Cognitive Development: Are the Retired Really Inactive?",

abstract = "This paper uses longitudinal test data to analyze the relation between retirement and cognitive development. Controlling for individual fixed effects and lagged cognition, we find that retirees face greater declines in information processing speed than those who remain employed. However, remarkably, their cognitive flexibility declines less, an effect that appears to be persistent 6 years after retirement. Both effects of retirement on cognitive development are comparable to the effect of a five to six-year age difference. Controlling for changes in blood pressure, which are negatively related to cognitive flexibility, we still find lower declines in cognitive flexibility for retirees. Since the decline in information processing speed after retirement holds particularly for the low educated, activating these persons after retirement could lower the social costs of an aging society.",

keywords = "Cognitive decline, Labor market activity, Retirement",

author = "{De grip}, Andries and Arnaud Dupuy and Jelle Jolles and {Van boxtel}, Martin",

year = "2013",

language = "English",

series = "Working Papers",

publisher = "CEPS/INSTEAD",

number = "2013-11",