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Unemployment and Mortality: Evidence from the PSID

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  • Halliday, Timothy J.

    (University of Hawaii at Manoa)

Abstract

In this paper, we use the death file from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to investigate the relationship between county-level unemployment rates and mortality risk. After partialling out important confounding factors including baseline health status as well as state and industry fixed effects, we show that poor local labor market conditions are associated with higher mortality risk for working-aged men. In particular, we show that a one percentage point increase in the unemployment rate increases their mortality hazard by 6%. There is little to no such relationship for people with weaker labor force attachments such as women or the elderly. Our results contribute to a growing body of work that suggests that poor economic conditions pose health risks and illustrate an important contrast with studies based on aggregate data.

Suggested Citation

  • Halliday, Timothy J., 2013. "Unemployment and Mortality: Evidence from the PSID," IZA Discussion Papers 7157, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7157
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    Cited by:

    1. Janke, Katharina & Lee, Kevin & Propper, Carol & Shields, Kalvinder & Shields, Michael A., 2020. "Macroeconomic Conditions and Health in Britain: Aggregation, Dynamics and Local Area Heterogeneity," IZA Discussion Papers 13091, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Byaro, Mwoya & Mafwolo, Gemma & Ngereza, Caroline, 2023. "Does unemployment in sub-Saharan Africa have asymmetric effects on health? A panel quantile approach," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).
    3. Eryarsoy, Enes & Shahmanzari, Masoud & Tanrisever, Fehmi, 2023. "Models for government intervention during a pandemic," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 304(1), pages 69-83.
    4. Wang, Huixia & Wang, Chenggang & Halliday, Timothy J., 2018. "Health and health inequality during the great recession: Evidence from the PSID," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 17-30.
    5. Heather Klemick & Dennis Guignet & Linda T. Bui & Ron Shadbegian & Cameron Milani, 2022. "Cardiovascular Mortality and Leaded Aviation Fuel: Evidence from Piston-Engine Air Traffic in North Carolina," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-26, May.
    6. Kerry L. Papps & Alex Bryson & James Reade, 2023. "Running Up that Hill: Fitness in the Face of Recession," DoQSS Working Papers 23-03, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    7. Schwandt, Hannes & von Wachter, Till, 2020. "Socioeconomic Decline and Death: Midlife Impacts of Graduating in a Recession," CEPR Discussion Papers 14325, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Anthony Orji & Jonathan E. Ogbuabor & Onyinye I. Anthony-Orji & Chinonso Okoro & Blessing U. Aniorji, 2020. "Your job or your health? Analysis of unemployment issues and health outcomes in Nigeria," Romanian Economic Journal, Department of International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, vol. 23(77), pages 28-49, September.
    9. Chenggang Wang & Huixia Wang & Timothy J. Halliday, 2017. "Health and Health Inequality during the Great Recession: Evidence from the PSID," Working Papers 201703, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    10. Lucia Bosakova & Katarina Rosicova & Daniela Filakovska Bobakova & Martin Rosic & Dagmar Dzurova & Hynek Pikhart & Michala Lustigova & Paula Santana, 2019. "Mortality in the Visegrad countries from the perspective of socioeconomic inequalities," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 64(3), pages 365-376, April.
    11. Beata Gavurova & Samer Khouri & Viliam Kovac & Michaela Ferkova, 2020. "Exploration of Influence of Socioeconomic Determinants on Mortality in the European Union," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-21, June.
    12. Huixia Wang & Chenggang Wang & Timothy Halliday, 2016. "Money and Credit: Health and Health Inequality during the Great Recession: Evidence from the PSID," Working Papers 201615, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    13. Sameem, Sediq & Sylwester, Kevin, 2017. "The business cycle and mortality: Urban versus rural counties," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 28-35.
    14. Timothy J. Halliday, 2017. "Earnings Growth and Movements in Self‐Reported Health," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(4), pages 760-776, December.
    15. Halliday, Timothy & Mazumder, Bhashkar & Wong, Ashley, 2021. "Intergenerational mobility in self-reported health status in the US," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    16. María Andrée López Gómez & Laura Serra & George L Delclos & Fernando G Benavides, 2017. "Employment history indicators and mortality in a nested case-control study from the Spanish WORKing life social security (WORKss) cohort," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(6), pages 1-15, June.
    17. María Cervini-Plá & Judit Vall-Castelló, 2021. "Business cycle and mortality in Spain," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 22(8), pages 1289-1299, November.
    18. Giri, Jeeten Krishna & Kumaresan, Talitha, 2021. "The business cycle, health behavior, and chronic disease: A study over Three decades," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    19. Megan M. Reynolds & Patricia A. Homan, 2023. "Income Support Policy Packages and Birth Outcomes in U.S. States: An Ecological Analysis," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(4), pages 1-24, August.
    20. Clifford Afoakwah & Son Nghiem & Paul Scuffham & Joshua Byrnes, 2021. "Rising unemployment reduces the demand for healthcare services among people with cardiovascular disease: an Australian cohort study," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 22(4), pages 643-658, June.
    21. Hannes Schwandt & Till M. von Wachter, 2020. "Socio-Economic Decline and Death: The Life-Cycle Impacts of Recessions for Labor Market Entrants," NBER Working Papers 26638, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Sediq Sameem & Kevin Sylwester, 2016. "Unemployment and Homicides: Evidence from Individual Level U.S. Data," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 36(3), pages 1295-1305.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    aggregation; recessions; mortality; health;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I0 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - General
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics

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