Researchers at the Arc Centre of Excellence in Population Aging Research (CEPAR) say that increasing the retirement age will have no impact on mortality rates because health is the largest determinant in a person's death.
However it found that job loss as a result of company closures or down-sizing did affect mortality rates.
The study by the Australian School of Business sought to answer the debate around whether retiring lengthens or shortens lifespans — an issue that has seen more than 1000 academic studies report significantly different outcomes.
In some studies, retiring was said to reduce stress and lead to greater life enjoyment, whereas some found it led to loss of social networks and reduced mental and physical activity.
But the CEPAR study found that retirement has no impact on how long people live.
John Piggott, professor of economics at the Australian School of Business and director of CEPAR, said the timing of death depended on a person's health.
"Health influences both the timing of retirement and when we die, which has sometimes caused confusion in earlier studies," he said.
"As Australia's population continues to live longer, the amount of time spent in the post-work period is extending and this has significant cost implications for both individuals and governments."
If governments needed to raise the age of retirement to cope with rising fiscal burdens, it would not have adverse affects on the population, according to Piggott.
The research looked at population data from the Norwegian Government between 1990 and 2010 due to different retirement ages (62 or 67) between some employers.
