TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Kraats, Coen van de
AU  - Galama, Titus
AU  - Lindeboom, Maarten
AU  - Deng, Zichen
        TI  - Why Life Gets Better After Age 50, for Some: Mental Well-Being and the Social Norm of Work
        PY  - 2024/Dec/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 17586
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp17586
        AB  - We provide evidence that the social norm (expectation) that adults work has a substantial detrimental causal effect on the mental well-being of unemployed men in mid-life, as substantial as, e.g., the detriment of being widowed. As their peers in age retire and the social norm weakens, the mental well-being of the unemployed improves. Using data on individuals aged 50+ from 10 European countries, we identify the social norm of work effect using exogenous variation in the earliest eligibility age for old-age public pensions across countries and birth cohorts.
        KW  - mental well-being
KW  - social norm of work
KW  - retirement institution
        ER  -