• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.1-23
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• 2004

To investigate the interdependence of the decisions on when to retire and how much consume before and after retirement, we compare the pre- (or post-) retirement consumption conditioned on the retirement decision with pre- (or post-) retirement consumption regardless of retirement decision by using the Korea Labor and Income Panel Study(KLIPS). We employ the two-stage switching regression for the econometric method to investigate the interdependence of two decisions of retirement and pre- or post retirement consumption. Then we test the existence of the interdependence in terms of the significance of the estimated selection biases which appear in the pre- (post-) retirement consumption equations for early and late retirees. In those equations, we also compare the income elasticity of the consumption of the early retirees with that of the late retirees. The empirical results show that there is negative selection bias in early retirees' consumption. These results imply that due to the early retirement decision early retirees would have consumed less than they actually have. The income elasticities of the consumption of the early retirees is smaller than that of the late retirees in pre- (or post-) retirement consumption equation. This result shows that relatively longer retirement period due 10 the early retirement affect the pre-retirement consumption. early retirees' marginal propensity to consume should be lower than that of the late retirees.