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The European Journal of Health Economics

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01.10.2010 | Original Paper

Health impairments and labour market outcomes

verfasst von: Nick Drydakis

Erschienen in: The European Journal of Health Economics | Ausgabe 5/2010

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Abstract

Our analysis is based on the 2008 Athens Area Study and exploits detailed information regarding health impairments and labour market outcomes for Greek males. Distinguishing between healthy and heath-impaired employees who have or do not have work limitations, the unobserved productivity effect of health is separated from discrimination. We then estimate a regression model that includes terms to correct for employment selection and endogenous stratification of self-reported health condition. A penalty for productivity limitation exists. Evidence of wage discrimination is also found. Both findings are statistically significant and highlight the necessity for instituting active policies against unequal treatment.

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A Eurostat study [16] shows that health status is not distributed evenly; with each step up the socioeconomic ladder, groups are less vulnerable to disease, ill health and premature death. Genetics, the physical environment and early childhood experiences all influence overall population health in addition to the socioeconomic environment. Perceptions can also differ for different cultures, thus making comparisons more or less irrelevant.

Defences include the extent of the employer’s financial and other resources, the costs of making the adjustments and the extent to which other activities would be disrupted.

We define unemployed as a person who is available to work and seeking work but currently without work.

Note that, in addition to the severity of the impairment, whether a health problem is work-limiting will depend on a range of factors, including an individual’s own employment opportunities, the accessibility of workplace technological advances, changes in the nature of employment and labour market conditions [5, 25, 26].

In Greece, employee registration with insurance coverage implies mandatory contribution payments, for both the employer and the employee, based on employee wage level, which cannot be lower than the legal minimum wage according to employee characteristic (human capital and marital status).

For instance, the sample in Eq. 1 is systematically selected according to the condition \( \varepsilon_{1i} > - \alpha_{1} - \beta_{1} X_{i} - \gamma_{1} D_{{WD_{i} }} \). As a result, the expected value of the error term is not zero, and the use of OLS generates inconsistent estimates.

Following a meaningful point raised by an anonymous referee, we use an interaction term of the dummies of health impairments (D ^WL/D ^NWL) with being employed in the public sector (PUBL). Coefficients for the health status variables change only modestly, but an interesting result is found. The wage estimations show positive interaction between health impairments and public sector, each at the 5% level. Thus, one additional factor one might identify as a cause of the wage gap is the difference in occupations in which healthy and health-impaired are employed.

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Titel: Health impairments and labour market outcomes
verfasst von: Nick Drydakis
Publikationsdatum: 01.10.2010
Verlag: Springer-Verlag
Erschienen in: The European Journal of Health Economics / Ausgabe 5/2010
Print ISSN: 1618-7598
Elektronische ISSN: 1618-7601
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-009-0182-1

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