MANDATORY RETIREMENT AND THE CONSUMPTION PUZZLE: DISENTANGLING PRICE AND QUANTITY DECLINES
利用中国强制退休政策提供的准实验环境，通过断点回归设计分离退休后食品消费下降的价格效应与数量效应，发现下降主要由价格降低驱动，且教育水平影响退休后的时间分配。
This study investigates changes in household consumption at retirement based on a comprehensive, diary‐based household survey from China. We focus on disentangling price changes from quantity changes at retirement. The mandatory retirement policy in China provides a quasi‐experimental setting for nonparametric identification of the true causal effects of fully anticipated retirement. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that food expenditure declines at retirement, particularly among the less‐educated group. We further show that this decline is driven by a reduction in prices rather than quantities. These findings, along with a documented increase in shopping time for food upon retirement among the less‐educated households, are consistent with a time allocation model in which education enhances the value of leisure.