Does Retirement Make People Happier?-Evidence From China

Abstract

To investigate whether people's happiness will increase after retirement, this paper empirically investigates 2012, 2015, and 2017 China General Social Survey (CGSS) data using Ordinary Least Squares, Binary logit, and Fuzzy regression discontinuity Design. The results all show that retirement will significantly increase the happiness of men in urban China. The paper also validates these findings by testing the continuity of the reference and covariates at the cut–off point, changing the model settings, and using a more rigorous sample classification method. In addition, the article further analyzes the heterogeneity of the study and finds that retirement brings more happiness to those who have a college degree or less and have multiple children. The better the health status, the smaller the effect of retirement on happiness. The more social interactions, the smaller the effect of retirement on happiness. The policy implication of this paper is that when implementing a delayed retirement policy, special care should be taken for groups with greater welfare impairment, and it needs to be introduced together with other supporting measures to reduce people's worries. This paper analyzes the relationship between retirement and happiness in China and makes suggestions for the implementation of a delayed retirement policy, enriching the theoretical and empirical work on the effects of retirement on people's happiness and contributing to the world's response to aging and welfare policies for the older person.