IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aph/ajpbhl/20019191403-1411_8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Keeping the unemployed healthy: The effect of means-tested and entitlement benefits in Britain, Germany, and the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Rodriguez, E.

Abstract

Objectives. Although considerable evidence about the health effects of unemployment exists, little is known about the possible protective effects of various social interventions. This study examined the role that means-tested and entitlement programs could have in ameliorating the health impact of unemployment in Britain, Germany, and the United States. Methods. Logistic regression models were used to analyze panel data from Britain (1991-1993), Germany (1991-1993), and the United States (1985-1987) available in the Household Panel Comparability Project database. The analysis included 8726 respondents from Britain, 11086 from Germany, and 11668 from the United States. The health-dependent variable used was a single measure of perceived health status. Results. Evidence was found of differences in perceived health status between groups of unemployed people characterized by the types of benefits they receive. When socioeconomic characteristics and previous health and employment status are controlled for, means-tested benefits do not seem sufficient to reduce the impact of unemployment on health. Conclusions. Monitoring the possible health effects of changes in public assistance benefits should be given priority in the research and political agenda.

Suggested Citation

  • Rodriguez, E., 2001. "Keeping the unemployed healthy: The effect of means-tested and entitlement benefits in Britain, Germany, and the United States," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 91(9), pages 1403-1411.
    • Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:2001:91:9:1403-1411_8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Molnar, Agnes & O’Campo, Patricia & Ng, Edwin & Mitchell, Christiane & Muntaner, Carles & Renahy, Emilie & St. John, Alexander & Shankardass, Ketan, 2015. "Protocol: Realist synthesis of the impact of unemployment insurance policies on poverty and health," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 1-9.
    2. Martin Salm, 2009. "Does job loss cause ill health?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(9), pages 1075-1089, September.
    3. Salm, M, 2008. "Job loss does not cause ill health," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 08/16, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    4. Pankaj C. Patel & Cornelius A. Rietveld & Jack I. Richter, 2022. "The relation between public assistance and self-employment in census tracts: a long-term perspective," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 32(3), pages 891-927, July.
    5. Ozdamar, Oznur & Giovanis, Eleftherios, 2016. "Being Healthy in Turkey: A Pseudo-Panel Data Analysis," MPRA Paper 95838, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. MAZEIKAITE Gintare & O'DONOGHUE Cathal & SOLOGON Denisa, 2017. "Decomposing health inequality in the EU," LISER Working Paper Series 2017-02, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    7. Shahidi, Faraz Vahid & Muntaner, Carles & Shankardass, Ketan & Quiñonez, Carlos & Siddiqi, Arjumand, 2019. "The effect of unemployment benefits on health: A propensity score analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 198-206.
    8. Schmid, Günther, 2020. "Beyond European unemployment insurance. Less moral hazard, more moral assurance?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 26(4), pages 465-480.
    9. Gyu‐Jin Hwang, 2019. "How fair are unemployment benefits? The experience of East Asia," International Social Security Review, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 72(2), pages 49-73, April.
    10. Andriy Yur’yev & Airi Värnik & Peeter Värnik & Merike Sisask & Lauri Leppik, 2012. "Employment status influences suicide mortality in Europe," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 58(1), pages 62-68, January.
    11. Oznur Ozdamar & Eleftherios Giovanis, 2016. "The Effect of Survivors’ Benefits on Poverty and Health Indicators of Women and Children in Widowed-Mother Households: A Turkish Case Study," Working Papers 1018, Economic Research Forum, revised Jun 2016.
    12. Salm, M., 2009. "Does job loss cause ill health?," Other publications TiSEM 314436db-9957-4912-ba47-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    13. Giovanis, Eleftherios & Ozdamar, Oznur, 2016. "The Effect of Survivors’ Benefits on Poverty and Health Status of Widowed Women: A Turkish Case Study," MPRA Paper 104047, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Siegel, Martin & Vogt, Verena & Sundmacher, Leonie, 2014. "From a conservative to a liberal welfare state: Decomposing changes in income-related health inequalities in Germany, 1994–2011," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 10-19.
    15. Günther Schmid, 2020. "Beyond European unemployment insurance. Less moral hazard, more moral assurance?," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 26(4), pages 465-480, November.
    16. Been, J.; & Suari-Andreu, E.; & Knoef, M.;, 2022. "The short-run effects of unexpected job loss on health," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 22/21, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.

    More about this item

    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:aph:ajpbhl:2001:91:9:1403-1411_8. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Christopher F Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.apha.org .

    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.