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The ‘healthy worker effect’: do healthy people climb the occupational ladder?

Costa-Font, Joan ORCID: 0000-0001-7174-7919 and Ljunge, Martin (2018) The ‘healthy worker effect’: do healthy people climb the occupational ladder? Economics and Human Biology, 28. pp. 119-131. ISSN 1570-677X

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Identification Number: 10.1016/j.ehb.2017.12.007

Abstract

The association between occupational status and health has been taken to reveal the presence of health inequalities shaped by occupational status. However, that interpretation assumes no influence of health status in explaining occupational standing. This paper documents evidence of non-negligible returns to occupation status on health (which we refer as ‘healthy worker effect’). We use a unique empirical strategy that addressed reverse causality, namely an instrumental variable strategy using the variation in average health in the migrant’s country of origin, a health measure plausibly not determined by the migrant’s occupational status. Our findings suggest that health status exerts significant effects on occupational status in several dimensions; having a supervising role, worker autonomy, and worker influence. The effect size of health is larger than that of an upper secondary education.

Item Type: Article
Official URL: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/economics-and-hu...
Additional Information: © 2018 Elsevier B.V.
Divisions: Health Policy
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
JEL classification: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I18 - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J5 - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining
Date Deposited: 17 Jan 2018 13:24
Last Modified: 28 Mar 2024 23:03
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/86471

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