Effects of Health on Own and Spousal Employment and Income Using Acute Hospital Admissions
Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper No. 11-143/3
47 Pages Posted: 12 Oct 2011
Date Written: October 11, 2011
Abstract
Ill-health can be expected to reduce employment and income. But are the effects sustained over time? Do they differ across the income distribution? And are there spillover effects on the employment and income of the spouse? We use matching combined with difference-in-differences to identify the causal effects of sudden illness, represented by acute hospitalizations, on employment and income up to six years after the health shock using linked Dutch hospital and tax register data. On average, an acute hospital admission lowers the employment probability by seven percentage points and results in a 5% loss of personal income (30% for those entering disability insurance) two years after the shock. There is no subsequent recovery in either employment or income. The distribution of ill-health contributes to income inequality: a health shock is both more likely to occur and to have a larger relative impact on employment and income at the bottom of the income distribution. There are large spillover effects: household income falls by 50% more than the income of the disabled person, and the employment probability of the spouse is reduced by 1.5 percentage points. The negative spousal employment effect is larger for male than for female spouses and in higher income households.
Keywords: health, disability, employment, income, propensity score matching
JEL Classification: I10, J21, J26
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
Spousal Labor Supply as Insurance: Does Unemployment Insurance Crowd Outthe Added Worker Effect?
-
Market Work, Wages, and Men's Health
By Robert Haveman, Mark Stone, ...
-
Early Retirement and Public Disability Insurance Applications: Exploring the Impact of Depression
By Rena M. Conti, Ernst R. Berndt, ...
-
By Richard W. Johnson, Gordon Mermin, ...
-
By Jürgen Maurer and Francis Vella
-
By Jürgen Maurer, Roger W. Klein, ...
-
Medical Care at the End of Life: Diseases, Treatment Patterns, and Costs
By Alan M. Garber, Thomas E. Macurdy, ...
-
Financial Hardship Before and after Social Security's Early Eligibility Age
By Richard W. Johnson and Gordon Mermin