Booms, Busts and Retirement Timing

Cyclical fluctuations—which affect both asset and labour markets—can have an ambiguous effect on retirement. We explore this empirically using data from the British Household Panel Survey, exploiting small area geographic identifiers to match local house prices, earnings and unemployment to respondents. We match stock prices via the date of interview. Our results show little evidence of any positive wealth effects despite large spatial and temporal variations in asset prices over the period analysed. We find more response to local labour market conditions—increases in unemployment are associated with earlier retirement, while increases in wages delay retirement.