Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108AGING IN THE 21S T CENTURY 32 retirement of men aged 60 to 64, making them 5 to 7.5% more likely to retire than men in their 50s. Robinson and Clark (2010) consider retire- ment transitions from 1992 to 2006 and show that those who have access to retiree health in- surance are 21% more likely to leave their career jobs than those without it, and having retiree coverage is associated with a higher probability of retiring at age 62 (French and Jones 2011). Those with retiree health insurance save less, as they do not need to make provision for their own health care coverage (Clark and Mitchell 2014). Comparing retirement for individuals who have health insurance tied to their jobs with those who do not, French and Jones (2011) find that those with employer-provided health insurance are slightly more likely to work until age 65, a situation known as job lock. To get at this directly, HRS asks participants if they would like to retire but plan to keep working because they need the health insurance. About 75% of those who were 62 to 65 and working in 2010 report job lock in this sense (Fisher et al. 2016). Spousal health insurance benefits can influence how couples decide to time their retire- ments. Households do a good job of maintaining coverage for both partners through a range of options including purchasing private coverage when employer-provided insurance ends, usually for the wife when the husband retires (Schimmel 2006). Husbands tend to delay retirement until some form of other insurance is available such as Medicare or spousal benefits, but wives tend to transition into the private insurance market, which can be costly. A similar study examines the effect of employer-provided health insurance on the likelihood that couples retire together. Couples are twice as likely to jointly retire when the wife holds employer-provided health insur- ance (Kapur and Rogowski 2007). A recent study finds that men are less likely to retire if that means they or their wives would lose their health insurance (Congdon-Hohman 2013). Aspects of public and private pension and insurance programs vary across countries, and some researchers are using information from the HRS combined with HRS sister studies to take advantage of the cross-country variation to study specific program effects. In both England and the US, self-employed workers have different access to health insurance and pensions (Zissimopoulos et al. 2007). Wage and salary workers have a high- er retirement rate than the self-employed in both countries, and this is largely due to retirement incentives created by DB pensions. The retirement rate is higher in England compared to the US, and the overall earlier age at retirement is partly accounted for by the availability of public health insurance. Consequences of Retirement Retirement is often thought of as a well-earned rest at the end of a long work life, a time to relax and enjoy. Yet, work may have some benefits that are missed in retirement. Other changes that come with retirement may have a downside. For example, physical activity increases for some but decreases for others. Some eat out more; others do more cooking at home. Some may find themselves more engaged in hobbies and interests; others may find themselves lacking stimulation. Two different lines of research in HRS examine these and other possible changes. One line describes the impact of retirement on physical activity, changes in eating, and weight; another line examines retirement effects on health and cognitive functioning. Lifestyle Changes in Retirement Many studies show that BMI tends to increase with age. The average weight gain in our 50s is 1.30 BMI units, or about 10 pounds for the aver- age woman and 15 pounds for the average man. The question is whether or not some weight gain is due to lifestyle changes that can come with re- tirement. Longitudinal studies like the HRS allow researchers to observe changes in weight and oth- er things over time. Chung et al. (2007) use HRS data from 1992 to 2002 to look at changes in food spending with retirement. Most people seem to spend less money on eating out after retirement. Among married couples, this is especially true when the wife retires, which reduces household spending on eating out. This reduction in spend- ing on eating out leads to a small reduction in BMI. Looking at the relationship between home meal preparation and changes in hours worked Most people seem to spend less money on eating out after retirement. Men are less likely to retire if that means they or their wives would lose their health insurance.