Work environment satisfaction and employee health: panel evidence from Denmark, France and Spain, 1994–2001

This paper investigates whether a satisfactory work environment can promote employee health even after controlling for socioeconomic status and life style factors. A dynamic panel model of health is estimated from worker samples from Denmark, France and Spain, employing both self-assessed general health and the presence of a functional limitation. In all three countries and for both types of health measures, a good perceived work environment is found to be a highly significant determinant of worker health even after controlling for unobserved heterogeneity and minimizing reverse causality. The marginal effect is, however, larger in France and Denmark than in Spain. Several potential explanations for this finding are discussed. Further, a satisfactory working environment is found to be at least as important for employee health as socioeconomic status. Thus, investing in giving workers a satisfying work environment could be a low-cost way of improving employee health.