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Self-reported health in good times and in bad: Ireland in the 21st century

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  • Kevin Denny
  • Patricia Franken

Abstract

The Great Recession has renewed interest in whether and how health responds to macroeconomic changes. Ireland provides a convenient natural experiment to examine this since a period of sustained high growth and low unemployment – the so-called Celtic Tiger period- gave way to a deep recession following the economic crisis in 2008. We use data from the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions survey (SILC), to explore what happened to self-reported health over the period 2002-2014. While some sub-populations experienced pro-cyclical effects on self-rated health, in general we find no evidence that the proportion of the population in poor health was higher after the onset of the economic crisis. However a multivariate model implies that there was some effect at the top of the health distribution with a higher unemployment rate switching individuals from being in “very good health” to “good health”. Effect sizes are much larger for females than males.

Suggested Citation

  • Kevin Denny & Patricia Franken, 2016. "Self-reported health in good times and in bad: Ireland in the 21st century," Working Papers 201607, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201607
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10197/7859
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher J. Ruhm, 2000. "Are Recessions Good for Your Health?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(2), pages 617-650.
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    3. Tøge, Anne Grete & Blekesaune, Morten, 2015. "Unemployment transitions and self-rated health in Europe: A longitudinal analysis of EU-SILC from 2008 to 2011," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 171-178.
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    5. Timothy N. Bond & Kevin Lang, 2019. "The Sad Truth about Happiness Scales," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(4), pages 1629-1640.
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Self-reported health; Well-being; Recession; Unemployment; Ireland;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • J60 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - General

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