Love and retirement - Older couples' leisure time before and after retirement

Abstract

The paper investigates older spouses' individual and joint leisure time before and after retirement. To identify the impact of retirement on individual and joint leisure time, we use a regression discontinuity approach with the official retirement age as the instrument. The sample consists of 55-74-year-old married or cohabiting men and women and data stem from the Danish Time-Use and Consumption Survey and administrative registers at Statistics Denmark. We find that spouses' simultaneous retirement has the same impact on joint leisure time as does non-simultaneous retirement. Further, there is no impact of a partner's retirement on men and women's own leisure time. Joint and individual leisure time, however, increases when she retires, while his retirement has no impact on the couple's joint leisure time.