Heterogeneity in spending change at retirement

MD Hurd, S Rohwedder - The journal of the economics of ageing, 2013 - Elsevier
The simple one-good model of life-cycle consumption requires that consumption be
continuous over retirement; yet prior research based on partial measures of consumption or
on synthetic panels indicates that spending drops at retirement, a result that has been called
the retirement-consumption puzzle. Using panel data on total spending, nondurable
spending and food spending, we find that spending declines at small rates at retirement,
rates that could be explained by mechanisms such as the cessation of work-related …