The relationship between unemployment, morbidity and mortality in Britain

Abstract

The object of the paper is to provide a satisfactory intellectual context to discuss the effects of unemployment both on morbidity and on mortality. The paper consists of three main sections and an introduction and conclusion. In the first section the methodological problems involved in establishing a causal relationship between unemployment and ill-health are discussed given the incidence of poverty, ill-health and unemployment and their interrelationships. In the second section evidence from social surveys including both surveys from the 1930s and the 1978 DHSS Cohort Study of the Unemployed is presented. The last section is concerned with evidence from cross-sectional and longitudinal regression models. It is argued that by far the most promising avenue for establishing the existence and extent of any causal relationship between unemployment an either morbidity or mortality is through the analysis of longitudinal survey in which members who do not experience unemployment are included.

I have been the grateful recipient of helpful advice from Heather Joshi, Michael Lloyd, Steve Nickell and David Piachaud. However, the entire responsibility for the views expressed in the paper rests with me alone. None of the above, nor any institution to which I am or have been attached necessarily share these views. Financial assistance was received from the Social Science Research Council.

I have been the grateful recipient of helpful advice from Heather Joshi, Michael Lloyd, Steve Nickell and David Piachaud. However, the entire responsibility for the views expressed in the paper rests with me alone. None of the above, nor any institution to which I am or have been attached necessarily share these views. Financial assistance was received from the Social Science Research Council.

Notes

I have been the grateful recipient of helpful advice from Heather Joshi, Michael Lloyd, Steve Nickell and David Piachaud. However, the entire responsibility for the views expressed in the paper rests with me alone. None of the above, nor any institution to which I am or have been attached necessarily share these views. Financial assistance was received from the Social Science Research Council.