Résumé :
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In this paper, we investigate health and aging before and after retirementfor specific occupational groups. We use five waves of the Survey of Health, Aging, andRetirement in Europe (SHARE) dataset and construct a frailty index forelderly men andwomen from 10 European countries. We classify occupation by low vs. higheducation, bluevs. white collar color, and by high vs. low physical or psychosocial job burden. Controllingfor individual fixed effects, we find that, regardless of the used classification, workers fromthe first (low status) group display more health deficits at any age and accumulate healthdeficits faster than workers from the second (high status) group. We instrument retirementby statutory retirement ages (“normal” and “early”) and find that the health ofworkersin low status occupations benefits greatly from retirement, whereasretirement effects forworkers in high status occupations are small and frequently insignificant. We also find thatworkers from low status occupations accumulate health deficits fasterafter retirement, i.e.we find evidence for an occupational health gradient that widens with increasing age,before and after retirement.
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