The aim of this chapter is to empirically examine the impact of health problems of the elderly on their own and their household’s income. Using micro panel data from the “Survey on Health and Retirement” focusing on the elderly, we estimate the effect on an individual’s income and his...

This study examines the work capacity of older adults in Japan. First, we estimate the relationship between a variety of health indicators and work status.Work status is divided into full-time work, part-time work, and retired for those in their 50s who are not yet age-eligible for public...

This paper provides new evidence of consumers’ reaction to an anticipated sizable change in income. Until FY2002, Japanese public employees received predictable large bonus payments three times a fiscal year (in June, December, and March), but the March bonus was abolished in FY2003. We...

This study examines retirement decisions in Japan, using the option value (OV) model proposed by Stock and Wise (1990) and examined by subsequent studies. This model assumes that an individual maximizes a weighted average of utility from labor income until retirement as well as that from pension...

Using panel data from two surveys in Japan and Europe, we examine the comparability of the self-rated health of the middle-aged and elderly across Japan and the European countries and the survey periods. We find that a person’s own health is evaluated on different standards (thresholds) across...

This paper explores the public pension claiming behavior of the Japanese. First, we perform financial simulations and estimate the expected utility, depicting the typical patterns of pension benefits over a life cycle. We show that the optimal retirement age depends on the beneficiaries’...