Retirement and household tourism consumption—A case study in China

Abstract

To date there has been little agreement on the effect of retirement on tourism consumption, and “retirement-tourism consumption puzzle” has not been empirically tested. Taking advantage of the mandatory retirement policy in China, this study adopts the fuzzy regression discontinuity design (RDD) approach to examine whether there is a “retirement-tourism consumption puzzle.” The findings indicate that the retirement of household heads significantly boosts household tourism consumption. The results also illustrate the considerable moderating effects of self-assessed health level and pension level on household tourism consumption. The research framework can be generalized to other countries to identify the effect of retirement on tourism consumption.