Does job loss cause ill health?
This study estimates the effect of job loss on health for near elderly employees based on longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study. Previous studies find a strong negative correlation between unemployment and health. To control for possible reverse causality, this study focuses on people who were laid off for an exogenous reason - the closure of their previous employers' business. I find no causal effect of exogenous job loss on various measures of physical and mental health. This suggests that the inferior health of the unemployed compared to the employed could be explained by reverse causality.
Salm
Martin
M
Department of Econometrics and OR, Tilburg University, Tilburg, Netherlands. M.Salm@uvt.nl
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000367:Age Factors; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors