Household Consumption at Retirement: a Regression Discontinuity Study on French Data
Résumé
Previous literature has investigated the drop in household consumption after the retirement of the household head, referred to as the so-called 'retirement consumption puzzle'. This article expands on these studies by taking the retirement of the wife into consideration, thus distinguishing between 'dualearner' households and those in which the wife is a 'housewife'. A regression discontinuity approach is used to estimate the effect of each partner's retirement on household consumption. The analysis data are derived from the 2001 French Consumer Budget Survey that collected two-week expenditure diaries. The findings indicate a significant and sizable decrease in clothing expenditure upon the retirement of the male partner.