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Elderly Health and Salaries in the Mexican Labor Market

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  • Susan W. Parker

Abstract

Little work exists on elderly health, work and salaries in developing countries. This paper aims to contribute to this literature in the areas of health and income of the elderly. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of elderly health in the context of a developing country, Mexico,and the relationship between these health indicators and earnings in the labor market. We analyze the determinants of elderly health in Mexico, considering a number of different measures of health status, and we use these indicators to evaluate the impact of health on the income of working elderly individuals. We use the National Mexican Aging Survey of 1994, which contains detailed self-reported indicators of health as well as labor market information, to tease out these potential relationships. The results find that health measures have a strong negative effect on wages for male elderly workers. Our lowest point estimations demonstrate that poor health lowers hourly earnings by 58 percent. These are sizable effects, particularly within the context of a developing country, which does not have a universal social security system and may therefore imply that many elderly individuals work, whether or not their health level permits it. Poor health may also prevent others from working, and thereby contribute to high poverty rates among the elderly.

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  • Susan W. Parker, 1999. "Elderly Health and Salaries in the Mexican Labor Market," Research Department Publications 3051, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    • Handle: RePEc:idb:wpaper:3051
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    Cited by:

    1. Chijioke O. Nwosu, 2016. "The impact of health on the employment and earnings of young South Africans," Working Papers 601, Economic Research Southern Africa.
    2. Estelle James & Alejandra Cox Edwards & Rebeca Wong, 2012. "The Gender Impact of Pension Reform," World Bank Publications - Reports 13046, The World Bank Group.
    3. William D. Savedoff & T. Paul Schultz, 2000. "Earnings and the Elusive Dividends of Health," Research Department Publications 3108, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    4. Elizabeth G. Katz & Maria C. Correia, 2001. "The Economics of Gender in Mexico : Work, Family, State, and Market," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13907, December.
    5. Stabridis, Omar & van Gameren, Edwin, 2018. "Exposure to firewood: Consequences for health and labor force participation in Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 382-395.
    6. Mayer, David, 2000. "On the Role of Health in the Economic and Demographic Dynamics of Brazil, 1980-1995," Arbetsrapport 2000:4, Institute for Futures Studies.

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