The effect of work disability on the intention to retire of older workers

In this paper, we analyze the effect of work disability on the desire to retire as soon as possible of older workers. We exploit objective health indicators and anchoring vignettes to develop work disability measures enhancing the comparability across individuals of work disability self-assessments. Our results show that, even once controlling for individual fixed-effects, individuals experiencing work limiting health problems are found to have a stronger propensity to retire. The role of work disability in determining retirement intentions varies with earnings and job characteristics.