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Pappa Ante Portas: The Retired Husband Syndrome in Japan

Author

Listed:
  • Bertoni, Marco

    (University of Padova)

  • Brunello, Giorgio

    (University of Padova)

Abstract
The "Retired Husband Syndrome", that affects the mental health of wives of retired men around the world, has been anecdotally documented but never formally investigated. We use Japanese micro data and the exogenous variation generated by the 2006 revision of the Japanese Elderly Employment Stabilization Law, which mandated employers to guarantee continuous employment between mandatory retirement age and full pension eligibility age, to estimate the causal effect of the husband's retirement on the wife's mental health. We find that adding one year to the time spent in retirement by Japanese husbands increases the probability that their wives develop the syndrome by 5.8 to 13.7 percentage points, depending on the empirical specification. We discuss mechanisms at work and argue that – ceteris paribus – increasing female labour force participation might exacerbate rather than attenuate the phenomenon.

Suggested Citation

  • Bertoni, Marco & Brunello, Giorgio, 2014. "Pappa Ante Portas: The Retired Husband Syndrome in Japan," IZA Discussion Papers 8350, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8350
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    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Work longer for a healthy economy and a happy home
      by Patrick Love in OECD Insights on 2015-05-10 12:25:31

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    Cited by:

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    2. Bertoni, Marco & Brunello, Giorgio & Mazzarella, Gianluca, 2018. "Does postponing minimum retirement age improve healthy behaviors before retirement? Evidence from middle-aged Italian workers," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 215-227.
    3. Merz, Joachim, 2022. "Are Retirees More Satisfied? Anticipation and Adaptation Effects: A Causal Panel Analysis of German Statutory Insured and Civil Service Pensioners," IZA Discussion Papers 15140, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Joachim Merz, 2022. "Are Retirees More Satisfied? Anticipation and Adaptation Effects: A Causal Panel Analysis of German Statutory Insured and Civil Service Pensioners," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1163, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    stress; couples; pension reforms; retirement; depression; Japan;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies

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