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Socioeconomic heterogeneity in the effect of health shocks on earnings: evidence from population-wide data on Swedish workers

Author

Listed:
  • Lundborg, Petter

    (Lunds University)

  • Nilsson, Martin

    (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation)

  • Vikström, Johan

    (Institute for Labout Market Policy Evaluation)

Abstract

In this paper, we test for the existence of socioeconomic heterogeneity in the effect of health shocks on labor market outcomes using register data on the total population of Swedish workers. We estimate fixed effect models and use unexpected hospitalizations as a measure of health shocks. Our results suggest large heterogeneity in the effects, where low educated individuals suffer relatively more from a given health shock. This result holds across a wide range of different health shocks and our results suggest that the heterogeneity increases by age. We test several potential explanations to these results. Extensive sensitivity analyses, including a difference-in-differences matching model, show that our estimates are robust to a number of potential threats. We conclude that socioeconomic heterogeneity in the effect of health shocks offers one explanation to why the socioeconomic gradient in health widens during middle ages.

Suggested Citation

  • Lundborg, Petter & Nilsson, Martin & Vikström, Johan, 2011. "Socioeconomic heterogeneity in the effect of health shocks on earnings: evidence from population-wide data on Swedish workers," Working Paper Series 2011:11, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2011_011
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    Cited by:

    1. Asad Islam & Jaai Parasnis, 2022. "Heterogeneous effects of health shocks in developed countries: Evidence from Australia," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 89(2), pages 471-495, October.
    2. Maria Cervini-Plá & Jose I. Silva & Judit Vall Castelló, 2016. "Estimating the income loss of disabled individuals: the case of Spain," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 51(2), pages 809-829, September.
    3. Anton Nilsson, 2015. "Who suffers from unemployment? The role of health and skills," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-24, December.
    4. Maria Cervini-Pla & Judit Vall Castelló, 2018. "The earnings and employment losses before entering the disability system," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 19(8), pages 1111-1128, November.
    5. Justine Bondoux & Thomas Barnay & Thomas Renaud & Florence Jusot, 2021. "How Does Disability Affect Income? An Empirical Study on Older European Workers," Erudite Working Paper 2021-05, Erudite.
    6. Oscar Erixson, 2017. "Health responses to a wealth shock: evidence from a Swedish tax reform," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 30(4), pages 1281-1336, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health; health shocks; socioeconomic status; life-cycle;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

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