IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp5804.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Early Life Health and Adult Earnings: Evidence from a Large Sample of Siblings and Twins

Author

Listed:
  • Lundborg, Petter

    (Lund University)

  • Nilsson, Anton

    (Lund University)

  • Rooth, Dan-Olof

    (Stockholm University)

Abstract

We study the relationship between early life health and adult earnings using a unique dataset that covers almost the entire population of Swedish males born between 1950 and 1970. The health information is obtained from medical examinations during the mandatory military enlistment tests at age 18, which we have further linked to register data on adult earnings. We find that most types of major diagnoses have long-run effects on future earnings with the largest effects resulting from mental conditions. Including sibling fixed effects or twin-pair fixed effects reduces the magnitudes of the estimates, although remaining substantial.

Suggested Citation

  • Lundborg, Petter & Nilsson, Anton & Rooth, Dan-Olof, 2011. "Early Life Health and Adult Earnings: Evidence from a Large Sample of Siblings and Twins," IZA Discussion Papers 5804, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5804
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp5804.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James P. Smith, 2009. "The Impact of Childhood Health on Adult Labor Market Outcomes," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 91(3), pages 478-489, August.
    2. Heather Royer, 2009. "Separated at Girth: US Twin Estimates of the Effects of Birth Weight," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 49-85, January.
    3. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2007. "From the Cradle to the Labor Market? The Effect of Birth Weight on Adult Outcomes," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(1), pages 409-439.
    4. Anne Case & Christina Paxson, 2008. "Height, Health, and Cognitive Function at Older Ages," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 463-467, May.
    5. Rosemary Hyson & Janet Currie, 1999. "Is the Impact of Health Shocks Cushioned by Socioeconomic Status? The Case of Low Birthweight," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 245-250, May.
    6. Susan L. Ettner & Richard G. Frank & Ronald C. Kessler, 1997. "The Impact of Psychiatric Disorders on Labor Market Outcomes," NBER Working Papers 5989, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Janet Currie & Mark Stabile & Phongsack Manivong & Leslie L. Roos, 2010. "Child Health and Young Adult Outcomes," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 45(3).
    8. Susan L. Ettner & Johanna Catherine Maclean & Michael T. French, 2011. "Does Having a Dysfunctional Personality Hurt Your Career? Axis II Personality Disorders and Labor Market Outcomes," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 149-173, January.
    9. repec:pri:rpdevs:case_paxson_cog_function_additional is not listed on IDEAS
    10. repec:pri:rpdevs:case_paxson_height_health_and_cognitive_function.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Jere R. Behrman & Mark R. Rosenzweig, 2004. "Returns to Birthweight," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(2), pages 586-601, May.
    12. repec:pri:cheawb:case_paxson_height_health_and_cognitive_function is not listed on IDEAS
    13. repec:pri:rpdevs:case_paxson_height_health_and_cognitive_function is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Case, Anne & Fertig, Angela & Paxson, Christina, 2005. "The lasting impact of childhood health and circumstance," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 365-389, March.
    15. Pinka Chatterji & Margarita Alegría & Mingshan Lu & David Takeuchi, 2007. "Psychiatric disorders and labor market outcomes: evidence from the National Latino and Asian American Study," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(10), pages 1069-1090, October.
    16. Susan L. Ettner & Richard G. Frank & Ronald C. Kessler, 1997. "The Impact of Psychiatric Disorders on Labor Market Outcomes," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 51(1), pages 64-81, October.
    17. Erik Lindqvist & Roine Vestman, 2011. "The Labor Market Returns to Cognitive and Noncognitive Ability: Evidence from the Swedish Enlistment," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 101-128, January.
    18. Lundborg, Petter & Nystedt, Paul & Rooth, Dan-Olof, 2009. "The Height Premium in Earnings: The Role of Physical Capacity and Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills," IZA Discussion Papers 4266, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. repec:ucn:wpaper:10197/317 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Lundborg, Petter & Nilsson, Anton & Rooth, Dan-Olof, 2012. "Parental Education and Offspring Outcomes: Evidence from the Swedish Compulsory Schooling Reform," IZA Discussion Papers 6570, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Petter Lundborg & Carl Hampus Lyttkens & Paul Nystedt, 2016. "The Effect of Schooling on Mortality: New Evidence From 50,000 Swedish Twins," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(4), pages 1135-1168, August.
    3. Richard Layard, 2013. "Mental health: the new frontier for labour economics," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-16, December.
    4. Petter Lundborg & Anton Nilsson & Dan-Olof Rooth, 2014. "Parental Education and Offspring Outcomes: Evidence from the Swedish Compulsory School Reform," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(1), pages 253-278, January.

    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. Lundborg, Petter & Nilsson, Anton & Rooth, Dan-Olof, 2014. "Adolescent health and adult labor market outcomes," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 25-40.
    2. Almond, Douglas & Currie, Janet, 2011. "Human Capital Development before Age Five," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 15, pages 1315-1486, Elsevier.
    3. Petter Lundborg & Anton Nilsson & Dan-Olof Rooth, 2016. "The health-schooling relationship: evidence from Swedish twins," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(4), pages 1191-1215, October.
    4. Lundborg, Petter & Nilsson, Anton & Rooth, Dan-Olof, 2011. "Does Early Life Health Predict Schooling Within Twin Pairs?," IZA Discussion Papers 5803, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Yuda, Michio, 2020. "Childhood health and future outcomes: Evidence from panel surveys for the Japanese population," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    6. Schultz, T. Paul, 2010. "Population and Health Policies," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4785-4881, Elsevier.
    7. Eide, Eric R. & Showalter, Mark H., 2011. "Estimating the relation between health and education: What do we know and what do we need to know?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 778-791, October.
    8. Gaurav Dhamija, 2018. "The Joint Determination of Later Life Health and Educational Outcomes by Early Life Conditions: A Multinomial Logit Analysis," Review of Market Integration, India Development Foundation, vol. 10(3), pages 197-227, December.
    9. Johnston, David W. & Schurer, Stefanie & Shields, Michael A., 2013. "Exploring the intergenerational persistence of mental health: Evidence from three generations," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1077-1089.
    10. Andrew Sharpe & Alexander Murray, 2011. "State of the Evidence on Health as a Determinant of Productivity," CSLS Research Reports 2011-04, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    11. Jason M. Fletcher, 2014. "The Effects Of Childhood Adhd On Adult Labor Market Outcomes," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(2), pages 159-181, February.
    12. Owen O'Donnell & Eddy Van Doorslaer & Tom Van Ourti, 2013. "Health and Inequality," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-170/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    13. Johnston, David W. & Schurer, Stefanie & Shields, Michael A., 2011. "Evidence on the Long Shadow of Poor Mental Health across Three Generations," IZA Discussion Papers 6014, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Amarante, Veronica & Manacorda, Marco & Miguel, Edward & Vigorito, Andrea, 2011. "Do Cash Transfers Improve Birth Outcomes? Evidence from Matched Vital Statistics, Social Security and Program Data," IZA Discussion Papers 6231, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Brandon J. Restrepo, 2016. "Parental investment responses to a low birth weight outcome: who compensates and who reinforces?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(4), pages 969-989, October.
    16. Zong‐Xian Xie & Shin‐Yi Chou & Jin‐Tan Liu, 2017. "The Short‐Run and Long‐Run Effects of Birth Weight: Evidence from Large Samples of Siblings and Twins in Taiwan," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(7), pages 910-921, July.
    17. Sotomayor, Orlando, 2013. "Fetal and infant origins of diabetes and ill health: Evidence from Puerto Rico's 1928 and 1932 hurricanes," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 281-293.
    18. Møllegaard, Stine, 2020. "The effect of birth weight on behavioral problems in early adolescence: New evidence from monozygotic twins," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    19. Andersen Dana C. & Gunes Pinar Mine, 2018. "The Role of Adolescent Health in Adult SES Outcomes," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 18(2), pages 1-16, April.
    20. Lin, Ming-Jen & Liu, Elaine M., 2014. "Does in utero exposure to Illness matter? The 1918 influenza epidemic in Taiwan as a natural experiment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 152-163.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    health; earnings; specific conditions; siblings; twins;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

    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:iza:izadps:dp5804. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.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.