Working longer and living healthier : essays on retirement, health, and caring responsibilities in France.

Summary Demographic aging raises questions about the sustainability of the pension system and support for the elderly. These issues have led to pension reforms and several developments in policies to support the elderly. This thesis aims to improve knowledge of the implications of these policies. The first part focuses on the impact of retirement on health. Chapter 1 summarizes the results of previous studies regarding the impact of retirement on health. Chapters 2 and 3 focus on the impact of delayed retirement on mortality and on health expenditures, respectively. They show that retiring later as a result of the 1993 reform in France has no impact on mortality and decreases health care expenditures for men. The second part of this thesis focuses on support policies for the elderly in France. Chapter 4 uses a microsimulation model to project the future needs for assistance to the elderly. The number of dependent elderly is estimated at 3.63 million people in 2060, with an expansion of morbidity. Chapter 5 looks at the impact of a change in formal assistance on the use of informal assistance. It shows that an increase in the amount of formal assistance decreases the probability of reporting receiving informal assistance.