Work-limiting health, earnings, and employment: an analysis with SIPP data. Issue 12 (8th March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yu, Peijingran; Couch, Kenneth A.
• Is Part Of: Applied economics. Volume 52:Issue 12(2020)
• Page Start: 1327
• Page End: 1348
• Publication Date: 2020-03-08
• Subjects: Ageing -- Disabled persons and disabilities -- Earnings -- Employment; I1 -- J3 -- J6; Economics -- Periodicals; 330
• DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2019.1661954
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0003-6846

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This study examines the role of work-limiting health conditions on employed people's earnings, employment status, and working hours, and distinguishes between the different degree and severity of predictable shocks. Using data from the 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), we evaluate the impact of any work-limiting health condition as well as a subset of health conditions that appear to arrive largely exogenously on post-onset earnings, employment, and working hours. We find that people who report being employed and later experience the onset of any work-limiting health condition tend to have lower subsequent earnings, a reduced probability of being employed, and fewer working hours per month compared to those who remain healthy. The adverse impact is even greater for people with health conditions that arrive less predictably. We use a difference-in-differences regression model with person and year fixed effects as the primary estimation method.