Foreseeable income reductions around retirement should not affect aggregate consumption. However, given higher leisure endowments after retirement, theory also predicts lower consumption of leisure substitutes. To avoid misinterpreting this predicted drop as a puzzle, our novel approach focuses on housing consumption (complementary to leisure in utility) and controls for leisure changes. In Germany tenants represent roughly half of all households, making many housing expenditures directly observable in micro data. We find significant negative impacts of the retirement status on housing consumption, which is hard to reconcile with life-cycle theory. Despite the lock-in nature of past housing decisions, income reductions at retirement have additional – though small – effects on housing.

退休前后可预见的收入减少不应影响总消费。然而，鉴于退休后休闲禀赋较高，理论也预测休闲替代品的消费较低。为了避免将这种预测的下降误解为一个谜题，我们的新方法侧重于住房消费（在实用中与休闲互补）和对休闲变化的控制。在德国，租户约占所有家庭的一半，因此在微观数据中可以直接观察到许多住房支出。我们发现退休状态对住房消费有显着的负面影响，这与生命周期理论难以协调。尽管过去的住房决定具有锁定性质，但退休时收入减少对住房有额外的——尽管很小——影响。