To Work or Not to Work? The Effect of Higher Pension Age on Cardiovascular Health

This study investigates the effect of pension age on hospitalization for cardiovascular diseases using administrative social security and hospital discharge records in Italy. The endogeneity of the retirement decision is addressed using an instrumental variable strategy exploiting the exogenous variation in pension age determined by quarter of birth. Results indicate a detrimental effect of higher pension age only for retirees who, before retirement, were suffering worse health and were employed in lower quality and more physically demanding jobs. Among them, a 1‐year delay in pension claiming increases the risk of hospitalization for cardiovascular diseases by approximately 2.6 percentage points.