From Work to Fork: Retirement Policy, Dietary Habits, and Health Outcomes in Europe

Abstract

What does a pension law have to do with what ends up on your plate? As European governments push retirement ages higher to sustain pension systems, this paper asks whether these policies shape not only when people stop working, but also how they live and eat thereafter. Thus, this paper examines whether statutory and early retirement eligibility thresholds causally affect dietary behavior among older Europeans. Using longitudinal SHARE data (2011-2022) across twenty countries, it exploits cross-country and over-time variation in pension legislation through a panel fixed-effects framework. Dietary adherence is measured via a composite Mediterranean-diet indicator constructed from food-frequency data. The central argument is that pension rules shape nutritional outcomes by altering the time resources available for meal preparation. Reaching the statutory retirement age increases the probability of healthy diet adherence by approximately 2.1 percentage points, driven largely by legume consumption, while early retirement eligibility produces no significant effect. These findings suggest that as European governments raise statutory retirement ages to address demographic pressures, they may inadvertently delay dietary improvements among older adults, with broader implications for population health and individual well-being.