WORK HISTORY AND HEALTH PATTERNS IN OLDER AGE

This thesis examines the impact of retirement on the health of the self-employed compared to employees. A second comparison is made between white-collar and blue-collar workers. The results show a significant correlation between self-employment and job and life satisfaction, which translates into better subjective well-being prior to retirement. Fixed effects regressions show that although retirement has an overall positive effect on health, this beneficial effect is less pronounced for the self-employed, particularly in terms of self-rated health, probably due to the loss of autonomy and job satisfaction. The results comparing non-manual and manual workers confirm that while the former tend to have better overall health, the latter experience more significant improvements in self-rated health after retirement due to relief from the physical demands of their work.