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The unequal impact of ill health: Earnings, employment, and mental health among breast cancer survivors in Finland

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  • Vaalavuo, Maria

Abstract

I study the impact of breast cancer on earnings, employment, and mental health among Finnish women, specifically examining whether there is a heterogeneous impact according to socioeconomic status. In addition, the contribution of the article lies in investigating the extent to which mental health problems mediate the impact on earnings and employment, and how efficiently social insurance system protects individuals from income loss due to sickness. The empirical analyses are based on unique register data including the total population of Finland from 2000 to 2016. As an identification strategy, the exact timing of cancer diagnosis is used. The results are based on difference-in-differences estimations. Breast cancer has an overall impact of –5.1 percent on annual earnings with significant differences between earnings quintiles: the negative impact in the second earnings quintile is the largest, –8.9 percent. Results hold when using other socioeconomic variables, while the impact is bigger when we include women with weaker labor market attachment to the analysis. Mental health problems mediate the impact only modestly. The negative effect is smaller when looking at total income highlighting the importance of the Finnish welfare state to buffer effects of ill health on economic well-being.

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  • Vaalavuo, Maria, 2021. "The unequal impact of ill health: Earnings, employment, and mental health among breast cancer survivors in Finland," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:69:y:2021:i:c:s0927537121000026
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2021.101967
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    Cited by:

    1. Böckerman, Petri & Kortelainen, Mika & Salokangas, Henri & Vaalavuo, Maria, 2023. "Family Affair? Long-Term Economic and Mental Effects of Spousal Cancer," IZA Discussion Papers 16005, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Riekhoff, Aart-Jan & Vaalavuo, Maria, 2021. "Health shocks and couples’ labor market participation: A turning point or stuck in the trajectory?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    3. Richard K. Moussa & Eric Delattre, 2023. "Dynamics of interactions between health and employment statuses: a panel data approach," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(8), pages 1-26, August.
    4. Henri Salokangas, 2021. "Exploring the labor market consequences of psychiatric disorders: An event study approach," Discussion Papers 148, Aboa Centre for Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Breast cancer; Causal impact; Difference-in-differences; Earnings; Employment; Inequality; Mental health; Register data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D - Microeconomics
    • I - Health, Education, and Welfare

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