Is Leisure Contagious? The Relationship Between Sickness Absence and Spousal Retirement

This paper studies the relationship between sickness absence and spousal retirement. Swedish panel data have been used to estimate the effects of both old-age retirement and disability retirement on average sickness absence during 1996 to 2001 for men and women. Spousal old-age retirement significantly increases female average long-term sickness absence by approximately one week per year, while spousal disability retirement yields a significant increase in average sickness absence for men by approximately one week and for women by approximately two weeks per year.