The Long-Term Consequences of a Golden Nest: Socioeconomic Status in Childhood and the Age at Leaving Home.

The age at leaving the parental home has significant implications for social and economic outcomes across the life course, highlighting the importance of examining nest-leaving patterns. We study the role of childhood standard of living on the age at nest leaving. Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we show empirically that individuals who grow up in families with a higher socioeconomic status-that is, in a golden nest-leave the parental home later than others.

How did European retirees respond to the COVID-19 pandemic?

We investigate the role of retirement on the adoption of preventive behaviours and on mental health during the first wave of the pandemic. We address the endogeneity of the timing of retirement using variation in early retirement and old-age pension eligibility. We find that those who retired earlier responded to the pandemic by limiting their mobility more, and by adopting stricter preventive behaviours in public.

Cervical cancer screening invitations in low and middle income countries: Evidence from Armenia.

Roughly 90 percent of cervical cancer deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where the lack of adequate infrastructures hampers screening, while informational, cultural, and socio-economic barriers limit participation in the few programs that do exist. We conducted a field experiment with the Armenian cervical cancer screening program to determine whether, despite these barriers, the simple, economical invitation strategies adopted in high-income countries could enhance screening take-up in LMICs. We find that letters of invitation increase screening take-up, especially when there are follow-up reminders.

Depressive symptoms and muscle weakness: A two-way relation?

The potential association between depressive symptoms and dynapenia - i.e. muscle weakness - is limited to few, mainly cross-sectional, studies.

Does postponing minimum retirement age improve healthy behaviors before retirement? Evidence from middle-aged Italian workers.

By increasing the residual working horizon of employed individuals, pension reforms that rise minimum retirement age can affect individual investment in health-promoting behaviors before retirement. Using the expected increase in minimum retirement age induced by a 2004 Italian pension reform and a difference-in-differences research design, we show that middle-aged Italian males affected by the reform reacted to the longer working horizon by increasing regular exercise, with positive consequences for obesity and self-reported satisfaction with health.

Asymmetric affective forecasting errors and their correlation with subjective well-being.

Aims: Social scientists have postulated that the discrepancy between achievements and expectations affects individuals' subjective well-being. Still, little has been done to qualify and quantify such a psychological effect. Our empirical analysis assesses the consequences of positive and negative affective forecasting errors-the difference between realized and expected subjective well-being-on the subsequent level of subjective well-being.

Work, retirement, and muscle strength loss in old age.

Reduced muscle strength is an accurate predictor of functional limitations, disability, and mortality. Hence, understanding which socio-economic factors contribute to preserve muscle strength in old age is central to the design of social policies that help reducing these health risks. Using data on handgrip strength collected by the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe for the population of Europeans aged 50+ and the exogenous variation in pension eligibility age across countries over time, we estimate that the retirement transition has a short-term positive causal effect on muscle strength.

Pappa Ante Portas: The effect of the husband's retirement on the wife's mental health in Japan.

The "Retired Husband Syndrome", that affects the mental health of wives of retired men around the world, has been anecdotally documented but never formally investigated. Using Japanese micro-data and the exogenous variation across cohorts in the maximum age of guaranteed employment induced by a 2006 Japanese reform, we estimate that the husband's earlier retirement significantly increases the probability that the wife reports symptoms related to the syndrome. We also find that retirement has a negative effect both on the household's economic situation and on the husband's own mental health, and that the higher economic distress contributes to reducing the wife's mental health.

Later-borns Don't Give Up: The Temporary Effects of Birth Order on European Earnings.

The existing empirical evidence on the effects of birth order on wages does not distinguish between temporary and permanent effects. Using data from 11 European countries for males born between 1935 and 1956, we show that firstborns enjoy on average a 13.7% premium in their entry wage compared with later-borns.

Hungry today, unhappy tomorrow? Childhood hunger and subjective wellbeing later in life.

I use anchoring vignettes to show that, on data for eleven European countries, exposure to episodes of hunger in childhood leads people to adopt lower subjective standards to evaluate satisfaction with life in adulthood. I also show that, as a consequence, estimates of the association between childhood starvation and late-life wellbeing that do not allow for reporting heterogeneity are biased towards finding a positive correlation. These results highlight the need to consider rescaling when drawing inference on subjective outcomes.