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The associations between early life circumstances and later life health and employment in Europe

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  • Manuel Flores
  • Adriaan Kalwij

Abstract

We use data from the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe to estimate for thirteen European countries the associations of early life circumstances—measured by childhood health and socioeconomic status (SES)—with educational attainment, and later life health and employment (at ages 50–64). In all countries and for men and women, favorable early life circumstances, and in particular a higher childhood SES, are associated with a higher level of education. In most countries and in particular for women, favorable early life circumstances are associated with better later life health, also when education is controlled for. The significant associations of favorable early life circumstances with a higher incidence of later life employment are mostly transmitted through education and later life health. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Manuel Flores & Adriaan Kalwij, 2014. "The associations between early life circumstances and later life health and employment in Europe," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 1251-1282, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:empeco:v:47:y:2014:i:4:p:1251-1282
    DOI: 10.1007/s00181-013-0785-3
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    2. Lazuka, Volha, 2017. "The lasting health and income effects of public health formation in Sweden," Lund Papers in Economic History 153, Lund University, Department of Economic History.
    3. Adriaan Kalwij, 2014. "An empirical analysis of the importance of controlling for unobserved heterogeneity when estimating the income-mortality gradient," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 31(30), pages 913-940.
    4. Michal Brzezinski, 2017. "Childhood circumstances, personality traits and adult-life economic outcomes in developing countries: Evidence from STEP," IBS Working Papers 05/2017, Instytut Badan Strukturalnych.
    5. Sung‐Hee Jeon & Jungwee Park & Dafna Kohen, 2023. "Childhood‐onset disabilities and lifetime earnings growth: A longitudinal analysis," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(8), pages 1749-1766, August.
    6. Manuel Flores & Melchor Fernández & Yolanda Pena-Boquete, 2020. "The impact of health on wages: evidence from Europe before and during the Great Recession," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 72(2), pages 319-346.
    7. Hamid NoghaniBehambari & Farzaneh Noghani & Nahid Tavassoli, 2021. "Early-life Income Shocks and Old-Age Cause-Specific Mortality," Papers 2101.03943, arXiv.org.
    8. Manuel Flores & Pilar García-Gómez & Adriaan Kalwij, 2020. "Early life circumstances and labor market outcomes over the life cycle," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 18(4), pages 449-468, December.
    9. Bruno Arpino & Jordi Gumà & Albert Julià, 2018. "Early-life conditions and health at older ages: The mediating role of educational attainment, family and employment trajectories," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(4), pages 1-17, April.
    10. Noghanibehambari, Hamid & Engelman, Michal, 2022. "Social insurance programs and later-life mortality: Evidence from new deal relief spending," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    11. Noghanibehambari, Hamid, 2022. "Intergenerational health effects of Medicaid," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    12. Hamid Noghanibehambari & Farzaneh Noghani, 2023. "Long‐run intergenerational health benefits of women empowerment: Evidence from suffrage movements in the US," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(11), pages 2583-2631, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Early life circumstances; Health; Employment; SHARE; D00; I10; J10; J20;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D00 - Microeconomics - - General - - - General
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General
    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General

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