t This essay estimates the health effects of increasing the normal retirement
age using Swedish administrative data on drug prescriptions, hospitalizations, and
mortality. To this end, I use a reform that raised the age at which broad categories
of Swedish local government workers were entitled to retire with full pension benefits
from 63 to 65. Estimating the effect of the reform on individuals’ health within
the age range 65–69, the results show no evidence that the reform impacted mortality
or health care utilization. Increasing the normal retirement age may thus have
positive government income effects without seriously affecting short to medium run
government health care expenditures.

• The effects of increasing the normal retirement age on health care utilization and mortality