|
on Economics of Ageing |
| By: | Milena Chełchowska |
| Abstract: | Personality traits are strong predictors of subjective well-being with meta-analyses supporting the relationships. However, the role of personality similarity in romantic couples, especially among older adults, remains unclear. This article aims to examine the actor and partner effects of personality traits on subjective well-being among older people in Europe. They include the effects on longitudinal development of subjective well-being as well as the under-researched impact of partners’ (dis)similarity in terms of personality traits. The study analyzes subjective well-being among older European couples using data from three waves of the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (from 2017-2022). It employs APIM and DRSA models to examine actor, partner, and personality similarity effects. Subjective well-being is measured using the CASP-12 scale, while personality traits are assessed using the Big Five inventory. Personality predicted subjective well-being over time at actor and partner levels. Neuroticism showed the strongest negative, conscientiousness the strongest positive actor effect. Extraversion had the strongest partner effect. Actor effects were generally stronger than partner effects for subjective well-being levels, but the reverse was true for subjective well-being development. Similarity effects were limited, though trait combinations revealed nuanced interactions. The findings confirm the importance of both partners’ personality traits for long-term subjective well-being, with effects varying by trait and outcome. They underscore the value of a dyadic longitudinal approach in revealing complex, trait-specific dynamics beyond simple similarity effects. |
| Keywords: | Dyads, Older adults, Subjective well-being, Personality traits, Actor-partner interdependence model, Dyadic reponse surface analysis |
| JEL: | J14 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sgh:kaewps:2026115 |
| By: | Arielle Cohen Tanugi |
| Abstract: | This study examines whether providing financial transfers influences depressive symptoms among older European adults and explores whether income or wealth shocks moderate this relationship. Using longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and a staggered dynamic Difference-in-Differences approach, this work assesses the psychological consequences of financial giving across diverse socioeconomic contexts. Results indicate that while giving initially leads to a decline in mental well-being, this effect diminishes over time, suggesting an adjustment process rather than lasting distress. The negative impact is strongest among women and those still employed, while retirees experience weaker effects. Contrary to expectations, negative income and wealth shocks do not significantly amplify depressive symptoms, implying that financial strain alone does not drive the relationship between giving and mental health. Instead, financial giving appear to be shaped by long-term social commitments, moral obligations, and ingrained norms rather than short-term economic considerations. These findings remain robust when combining propensity score matching with the staggered dynamic Difference-in-Differences estimation. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational Transfers, Financial Transfers, Mental Health, Wealth Shocks, Income Shocks |
| JEL: | J14 I31 D64 C23 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2026-6 |
| By: | Nita Handastya |
| Abstract: | Childhood socioeconomic disadvantage is a well established determinant of health in later life. Less is known about how early-life deprivation unfolds when individuals experience major institutional transformation and migration in adulthood. Cohorts socialized under Soviet institutions provide a useful setting to examine life-course divergence under systemic change. This study uses harmonized data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) on older adults residing in Estonia, Latvia, and Israel to examine the association between retrospectively reported childhood deprivation and multiple health outcomes in later life, including poor self-rated health, chronic disease burden, functional limitation, depression, and a composite multifrailty indicator. Logistic regression models and predicted probabilities assess whether childhood deprivation predicts late-life health across different adult institutional contexts and whether associations vary by linguistic affiliation. Higher levels of childhood deprivation are consistently associated with poorer health outcomes across all three countries. Individuals in the highest deprivation quintile show substantially higher odds of adverse health outcomes, including multifrailty. Stratified analyses for Estonia and Latvia indicate broadly similar deprivation-health gradients among national-language and Russian-speaking populations. These findings highlight the persistence of childhood disadvantage and the importance of early-life conditions in shaping health inequalities in ageing populations exposed to systemic transformation. |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2603.14118 |
| By: | He; Z.;; Huynh, L.D.T.; |
| Abstract: | This paper leverages China's 2006 housing reform and a non-parametric Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) to identify the causal impact of housing wealth on health and healthcare spending across age groups. We document a rich series of findings. A positive housing wealth shock leads to an increase in out -of-pocket medical expenses of the elderly and children, at both the extensive and intensive margins, thereby improving their health. These effects differ across age cohorts, highlighting how positive wealth shocks are translated into health improvements through both direct spending and private insurance uptake. In contrast, these health effects are not evident among young adults. Overall, these results indicate that wealth shock reduces health inequality within vulnerable households. The underlying mechanisms also differ by age group:a pure wealth effect for the elderly, precautionary savings incentives for younger adults, and inter-generational investments for children. |
| Keywords: | housing wealth; medical expenditure; health; China; age differences; |
| JEL: | G51 I11 I14 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:26/04 |
| By: | Barigou, Karim (Université catholique de Louvain, LIDAM/ISBA, Belgium); Loisel, Stéphane; Salhi, Yahia; Vigneron, Rayane |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes an online multivariate cumulative sum (MCUSUM) monitoring procedure for detecting changes in mortality dynamics, with direct applications to mortality and longevity risk management for insurers and pension funds. The method is built on Gaussian process (GP) non-parametric mortality forecasts, and performs surveillance in real time by tracking multivariate forecast errors across ages. We develop MCUSUM schemes targeting two practically relevant forms of change: (i) a change in level, corresponding to an abrupt proportional shift in mortality rates, and (ii) a change in trend, corresponding to a shift in the rate of mortality improvement. In both cases, one-sided monitoring rules allow the practitioner to focus on either adverse mortality shocks or adverse longevity developments. By explicitly exploiting dependence between age groups, the proposed multivariate approach improves detection performance relative to collections of univariate control charts. We evaluate the procedure through simulation experiments and empirical applications to recent mortality data from France, Japan, Canada, and the USA, and we further illustrate its use on a real-world life insurance portfolio. Finally, we document the impact of age-pattern changes consistent with rectangularization of mortality curves and discuss how such dynamics can affect prospective monitoring and the interpretation of detection signals. |
| Keywords: | Mortality modeling ; Change-point detection ; Gaussian processes ; longevity risk management ; rectangularization |
| Date: | 2026–02–26 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aiz:louvad:2026004 |
| By: | Chihiro Shimizu |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a spatial model of remote work, firm technology, and intergenerational care within the Becker-Diewert household-production tradition. The firm's technology is modeled using the Normalized Quadratic cost function, which allows the office-remote labor substitution elasticity to vary with factor prices. Residential space is decomposed into living and home-office components. Childcare and eldercare have separate production functions with own time and market services as substitutes. A generational structure distinguishes children, workers, and the elderly; only workers commute. I derive shadow-price bounds extending Schreyer and Diewert (2014) to five service prices, a spatial full-income identity with care surpluses, and rent gradients that flatten with remote-work technology. Heterogeneous households sort by remote-work capacity and care needs. Population aging amplifies the value of remote work as a care-enabling technology and generates a rent rotation between residential and commercial real estate. |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcr:wpaper:e225 |
| By: | Milena Chełchowska |
| Abstract: | Research on lifestyle patterns in later life has predominantly examined isolated behaviors rather than integrated configurations of daily activities. Moreover, despite increasing partner interdependence in older adulthood, lifestyle research has maintained an individual-level focus, overlooking how activity patterns may operate as couple-level phenomena. This study integrates person-centered and dyadic perspectives to examine lifestyle configurations among older European couples and their associations with subjective well-being. Using longitudinal data from older couples, latent class analysis identified four distinct lifestyle patterns: Activity-Limited, Employment-Dominated, Home-Based Recreation, and Socially Engaged. These classes were systematically differentiated by sociodemographic, economic, health, and family role characteristics. Actor-partner interdependence models revealed that all three active lifestyle patterns predicted higher subsequent subjective well-being compared to the Activity-Limited pattern, with Socially Engaged showing the strongest effects. Significant partner effects emerged across all classes, demonstrating that one partner's lifestyle contributed to the other's subjective well-being beyond individual effects. Partners showed moderate lifestyle interdependence, particularly for Socially Engaged patterns. These findings highlight that lifestyle patterns operate as relationally-embedded phenomena in later life, with implications for both partners' subjective well-being. |
| Keywords: | Dyads, Older adults, Subjective well-being, Lifestyle, Actor-partner interdependence model, Latent class analysis |
| JEL: | J14 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sgh:kaewps:2026116 |
| By: | Shantanu Bagchi (Department of Economics, Towson University) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a stylized overlapping-generations model to examine the effect of borrowing constraints on the economic implications of Social Security. In this framework, Social Security provides partial insurance against income risk that is uninsured due to incomplete markets. I find that when borrowing consistent with life cycle behavior is allowed in this framework, the micro- and macroeconomic effects of a downsizing in Social Security are considerably smaller than when borrowing is prohibited. I also find that the key mechanism behind this result is labor supply: with endogenous borrowing, households are able to exploit increasing labor productivity in early life to better self-insure against income risk. |
| Keywords: | Social Security, Borrowing constraint, Incomplete markets, Partial insurance, Labor supply. |
| JEL: | E21 G51 H55 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tow:wpaper:2026-04 |