IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_11881.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Sick of Politics?

Author

Listed:
  • Jon H. Fiva
  • Jo Thori Lind
  • Bjørn-Atle Reme
  • Henning Øien

Abstract

Political office involves stress, long hours, and media scrutiny, which may harm politicians' health. However, winning prestigious positions can increase social status, income, and connections, potentially offsetting these harms. We investigate the health effects of political promotions using comprehensive Norwegian administrative data on public health care utilization. Using an event study framework, we assess health outcomes by comparing newly elected mayors to controls matched by gender, age group, and education within the same municipality. While securing full-time office results in a substantial income boost, we find no evidence of adverse health effects. On the contrary, winning office leads to a sustained modest reduction in both general doctor visits and mental health consultations. This evidence runs counter to common concerns about the toll of political careers, pointing to potential health benefits associated with political advancement.

Suggested Citation

  • Jon H. Fiva & Jo Thori Lind & Bjørn-Atle Reme & Henning Øien, 2025. "Sick of Politics?," CESifo Working Paper Series 11881, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11881
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ifo.de/DocDL/cesifo1_wp11881.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fiva, Jon H. & Smith, Daniel M., 2018. "Political Dynasties and the Incumbency Advantage in Party-Centered Environments," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 112(3), pages 706-712, August.
    2. Michael Anderson & Michael Marmot, 2012. "The Effects of Promotions on Heart Disease: Evidence from Whitehall," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 122(561), pages 555-589, June.
    3. Sebastian Calonico & Matias D. Cattaneo & Max H. Farrell & Rocío Titiunik, 2019. "Regression Discontinuity Designs Using Covariates," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(3), pages 442-451, July.
    4. David W. Johnston & Wang-Sheng Lee, 2013. "Extra Status and Extra Stress: Are Promotions Good for Us?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 66(1), pages 32-54, January.
    5. Borgschulte, Mark & Vogler, Jacob, 2019. "Run for your life? The effect of close elections on the life expectancy of politicians," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 18-32.
    6. Olle Folke, 2014. "Shades Of Brown And Green: Party Effects In Proportional Election Systems," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 12(5), pages 1361-1395, October.
    7. Kaisa Kotakorpi & Panu Poutvaara & Marko Terviö, 2017. "Returns to Office in National and Local Politics: A Bootstrap Method and Evidence from Finland," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 33(3), pages 413-442.
    8. Querubin, Pablo & Snyder, James M., 2013. "The Control of Politicians in Normal Times and Times of Crisis: Wealth Accumulation by U.S. Congressmen, 1850–1880," Quarterly Journal of Political Science, now publishers, vol. 8(4), pages 409-450, October.
    9. Benny Geys & Rune J. Sørensen, 2024. "A post‐politics earnings penalty? Evidence from politicians' lifetime income trajectories (1970–2019)," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(1), pages 57-76, February.
    10. Raymond Fisman & Florian Schulz & Vikrant Vig, 2014. "The Private Returns to Public Office," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 122(4), pages 806-862.
    11. Eggers, Andrew C. & Hainmueller, Jens, 2009. "MPs for Sale? Returns to Office in Postwar British Politics," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 103(4), pages 513-533, November.
    12. Christopher J. Boyce & Andrew J. Oswald, 2012. "Do people become healthier after being promoted?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(5), pages 580-596, May.
    13. Knut Røed & Elisabeth Fevang, 2007. "Organizational Change, Absenteeism, and Welfare Dependency," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 42(1).
    14. Berg, Heléne, 2020. "Politicians’ payments in a proportional party system," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    15. Sigurd S. Arntzen & Jon H. Fiva & Rune J. Sørensen, 2024. "Vetting for Virtue: Democracy’s Challenge in Excluding Criminals from Office," CESifo Working Paper Series 11412, CESifo.
    16. Cox, Gary W. & Fiva, Jon H. & Smith, Daniel M. & Sørensen, Rune J., 2021. "Moral hazard in electoral teams: List rank and campaign effort," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Berg, Heléne, 2020. "On the returns to holding political office (Is it worth it?)," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 840-865.
    2. Berg, Heléne, 2018. "Is It Worth It? On the Returns to Holding Political Office," Research Papers in Economics 2018:5, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    3. Heléne Berg, 2018. "Is It Worth It? On the Returns to Holding Political Office," CESifo Working Paper Series 7406, CESifo.
    4. Marco Bertoni & Giorgio Brunello & Lorenzo Cappellari & Maria De Paola, 2023. "The long-run earnings effects of winning a mayoral election," LISER Working Paper Series 2023-02, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    5. Kaisa Kotakorpi & Panu Poutvaara & Marko Tervio, 2013. "Returns to office in national and local politics," Discussion Papers 86, Aboa Centre for Economics.
    6. Benny Geys & Rune J. Sørensen, 2024. "A post‐politics earnings penalty? Evidence from politicians' lifetime income trajectories (1970–2019)," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(1), pages 57-76, February.
    7. Auerbach, Jan, 2022. "Productive Office and Political Elitism," MPRA Paper 114582, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Heléne Berg, 2018. "Politicians' Payments in a Proportional Party System," CESifo Working Paper Series 7278, CESifo.
    9. Malmendier, Ulrike M. & Borgschulte, Mark & Guenzel, Marius & Liu, Canyao, 2020. "CEO Stress, Aging, and Death," CEPR Discussion Papers 14933, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Tom Nicholas, 2023. "Status and mortality: Is there a Whitehall effect in the United States?," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 76(4), pages 1191-1230, November.
    11. Berg, Helene, 2018. "Politicians’ Payments in a Proportional Party System," Research Papers in Economics 2018:3, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    12. Berg, Heléne, 2020. "Politicians’ payments in a proportional party system," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    13. Dahlgaard, Jens Olav & Kristensen, Nicolai & Larsen, Frederik Kjøller, 2022. "Reward or Punishment? The Distribution of Life-Cycle Returns to Political Office," IZA Discussion Papers 15274, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Palguta, Ján & Pertold, Filip, 2021. "Political salaries, electoral selection and the incumbency advantage: Evidence from a wage reform," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 1020-1047.
    15. Felix Schaff, 2022. "Urban Political Structure and Inequality: Political Economy Lessons from Early Modern German Cities," Working Papers 0225, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    16. Björn Kauder & Manuela Krause & Niklas Potrafke, 2018. "Electoral cycles in MPs’ salaries: evidence from the German states," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(4), pages 981-1000, August.
    17. Stommes, Drew & Aronow, P. M. & Sävje, Fredrik, 2023. "On the Reliability of Published Findings Using the Regression Discontinuity Design in Political Science," I4R Discussion Paper Series 22, The Institute for Replication (I4R).
    18. Jeong, Dahyeon & Shenoy, Ajay & Zimmermann, Laura V., 2023. "De Jure versus De Facto transparency: Corruption in local public office in India," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 221(C).
    19. Daniele, Gianmarco & Romarri, Alessio & Vertier, Paul, 2021. "Dynasties and policymaking," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 89-110.
    20. Fiva, Jon H. & Røhr, Helene Lie, 2018. "Climbing the ranks: incumbency effects in party-list systems," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 142-156.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    political selection; returns from office; health consequences; event study; administrative data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • J81 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Working Conditions
    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ces:ceswps:_11881. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.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.