Abstract
This study examines whether individuals’ self-assessed health is related to their previous standing in the labor market and their self-assessed health at that time. We find that, once self-assessed health in the past is controlled for, none of the specified reasons behind individuals’ labor market status at that time, including the inability to find work, have a statistically significant adverse impact on current assessment of physical or mental health. We do find, however, that women obtaining a job in the past period will currently perceive that their physical health is improved, and that previously unemployed men with a job to return to in the current period also experienced perceptions of better health in the current period. We present evidence that these perceptions share a common factor with other health indicators such as sick days and quasi-objective measures of physical and mental health.
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Notes
This result runs counter to the findings of Theodossiou (1998).
Details on the location of these measures in MEPS are in Part A of the Statistical Appendix (Jefferson and Pryor 2013).
Our measure of mental health differs from that of Theodossiou (1998) who measured psychological well-being and found that unemployment led to “greater strain,” “less enjoyment of day-to-day activities,” “being less able to face up to problems”, “less confidence,” “more thinking of being a worthless person,” and “feeling less happy.” He used the British Household Panel Study for his regression with a sample of roughly 7900 individuals in 1992.
Details on the location of the labor market status measures in MEPS are discussed in Part A of the Statistical Appendix (Jefferson and Pryor 2013).
In the MEPS, the education variable is defined as number of years of education when first entered MEPS. This variable does not change over time. The region variable is defined as region of residency at the end of the year. There is essentially no time variation in this variable.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Kathleen McCann of Social and Scientific Systems for assistance with our data; Adrian Lucas and members of the Swarthmore-Byrn Mawr-Haverford Summer Seminar for helpful comments; and Victoria Wilson-Schwartz for editorial assistance. Jefferson’s research is supported by a Swarthmore College Faculty Research Grant.
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Jefferson, P.N., Pryor, F.L. Does Labor Market Status Influence Self-Assessed Health?. Int Adv Econ Res 20, 45–56 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11294-013-9451-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11294-013-9451-y