IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/yaleeg/28474.html

Earnings Effects of Household Investment in Health in Colombia

Author

Listed:
  • Ribero, Rocio

Abstract

This study considers the links between primary indicators of health and individual labor productivity in Colombia and explores how additional public expenditures on health may improve individuals' health. Sample statistics show that illness occurs more frequently for women than for men, for less educated than for more educated, for rural than urban residents, and for older individuals. The well educated are considerably taller than those without schooling (6 cm. for males and 4 cm. for females). The empirical evidence confirms that health indicators are related to individual earnings in Colombia. A Mincerian log-earnings equation that includes health indicators as a form of human capital in addition to schooling is specified. When the morbidity variable is treated as endogenous and measured with error and the model is estimated by instrumental variables [IV], it becomes significant and has the expected negative sign. Controlling for age, education, sector of employment, gender and geographic location, an increase by 50% on the average number of days an individual was ill and unable to do his ordinary activities in the last month would imply reductions in labor earnings of 11% for urban males, 8% for urban females, 13% for rural males and 7% for rural females. The estimations with height show a positive sign and high significance even without the IV correction, but the coefficients increased with IV methods by an order of magnitude. Having one more centimeter of stature would increase urban female earnings by 4.7% and urban male earnings by 12%. Individual's wealth and living in a community with better health provision indicators are linked with better health outcomes. An analysis of the returns to schooling shows that schooling captures part of the effect of health on productivity when the health indicator is not included in the Mincer equation.

Suggested Citation

  • Ribero, Rocio, 1999. "Earnings Effects of Household Investment in Health in Colombia," Center Discussion Papers 28474, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:yaleeg:28474
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.28474
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/28474/files/dp990810.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.28474?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mark R. Rosenzweig & Kenneth I. Wolpin, 1988. "Heterogeneity, Intrafamily Distribution, and Child Health," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 23(4), pages 437-461.
    2. Fogel, Robert W, 1994. "Economic Growth, Population Theory, and Physiology: The Bearing of Long-Term Processes on the Making of Economic Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 369-395, June.
    3. Thomas, Duncan & Strauss, John, 1997. "Health and wages: Evidence on men and women in urban Brazil," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 159-185, March.
    4. Edmundo Murrugarra & Martin Valdivia, 1999. "The Returns to Health for Peruvian Urban Adults: Differentials Across Genders, the Life Cycle and the Wage Distribution," Research Department Publications 3050, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    5. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling and Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 41-63, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1, January-J.
    7. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Introduction to "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings"," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 1-4, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. James Heckman, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    9. Schultz, T. Paul & Tansel, Aysit, 1997. "Wage and labor supply effects of illness in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana: instrumental variable estimates for days disabled," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 251-286, August.
    10. Behrman, Jere R., 1993. "The economic rationale for investing in nutrition in developing countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 21(11), pages 1749-1771, November.
    11. Sahn, David E. & Alderman, Harold, 1988. "The effects of human capital on wages, and the determinants of labor supply in a developing country," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 157-183, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Attanasio, Orazio & Gomez, Luis Carlos & Rojas, Ana Gomez & Vera-Hernandez, Marcos, 2004. "Child health in rural Colombia: determinants and policy interventions," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 411-438, December.
    2. Kenya Valeria M. S. Noronha & M™nica Viegas Andrade, 2002. "Desigualdades sociais em saúde: evidências empíricas sobre o caso brasileiro," Textos para Discussão Cedeplar-UFMG td171, Cedeplar, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.
    3. Marcella Alsan & David E. Bloom & David Canning, 2004. "The Effect of Population Health on Foreign Direct Investment," NBER Working Papers 10596, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Alsan, Marcella & Bloom, David E. & Canning, David, 2006. "The effect of population health on foreign direct investment inflows to low- and middle-income countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 613-630, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jairo Núñez & Rocio Ribero, 1999. "Productivity of Household Investment in Health: The Case of Colombia," Research Department Publications 3052, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    2. Schultz, T. Paul, 1997. "Assessing the productive benefits of nutrition and health: An integrated human capital approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 141-158, March.
    3. Kaushal, Kaushalendra Kumar, 2014. "Pathway from nutrition intake to wage among elementary workers in India," MPRA Paper 56652, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Schultz, T. Paul, 2003. "Human capital, schooling and health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 207-221, June.
    5. Dinda, Soumyananda & Gangopadhyay, P.K. & Chattopadhyay, B.P. & Saiyed, H.N. & Pal, M. & Bharati, P., 2006. "Height, weight and earnings among coalminers in India," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 342-350, December.
    6. Schultz, T. Paul, 2003. "Human Capital, Schooling and Health Returns," Center Discussion Papers 28475, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    7. Rocio Ribero, 1999. "Earnings Effects of Household Investment in Health in Colombia," Working Papers 810, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    8. Paul Schultz, T., 2003. "Wage rentals for reproducible human capital: evidence from Ghana and the Ivory Coast," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 331-366, December.
    9. Huffman, Wallace & Orazem, Peter, 2004. "The Role of Agriculture and Human Capital in Economic Growth: Farmers, Schooling, and Health," ISU General Staff Papers 200408190700001239, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    10. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2859-2939 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Cawley, John & Han, Euna & Norton, Edward C., 2009. "Obesity and labor market outcomes among legal immigrants to the United States from developing countries," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 153-164, July.
    12. William D. Savedoff & T. Paul Schultz, 2000. "Earnings and the Elusive Dividends of Health," Research Department Publications 3108, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    13. Schultz, T. Paul & Tansel, Aysit, 1997. "Wage and labor supply effects of illness in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana: instrumental variable estimates for days disabled," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 251-286, August.
    14. Mwabu, Germano, 2007. "Health Economics for Low-Income Countries," Center Discussion Papers 10118, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    15. Ali, Mubarik & Farooq, Umar, 2004. "Dietary Diversity And Rural Labor Productivity: Evidence From Pakistan," 2004 Annual meeting, August 1-4, Denver, CO 20310, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    16. Sandra Nieto & Raúl Ramos, 2013. "Non-Formal Education, Overeducation And Wages," Revista de Economia Aplicada, Universidad de Zaragoza, Departamento de Estructura Economica y Economia Publica, vol. 21(1), pages 5-28, Spring.
    17. Chloé Duvivier Duvivier & Mary-Françoise Renard & Shi Li, 2012. "Are workers close to cities paid higher non-agricultural wages in rural China?," CERDI Working papers halshs-00673698, HAL.
    18. Rosen, Harvey S, 1982. "Taxation and On-the-Job Training Decisions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 64(3), pages 442-449, August.
    19. Joaquin Turmo-Garuz & M.-Teresa Bartual-Figueras & Francisco-Javier Sierra-Martinez, 2019. "Factors Associated with Overeducation Among Recent Graduates During Labour Market Integration: The Case of Catalonia (Spain)," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(3), pages 1273-1301, August.
    20. Michael Fertig & Katja Görlitz, 2012. "Item Nonresponse in Wages: Testing for Biased Estimates in Wage Equations," Ruhr Economic Papers 0333, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    21. Mar, Don, 2005. "Individual characteristics vs. city structural characteristics: explaining self-employment differences among Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos in the United States," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 341-359, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:yaleeg:28474. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/egyalus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.