Unemployment and health: a panel event study

ABSTRACT

Adopting a panel event study framework, we estimate the effect of unemployment on health outcomes by exploiting the variation in the timing of entering unemployment using longitudinal data for Greece. We find that in the periods ahead of an unemployment event, health outcomes decline and unmet needs for medical care increase. These findings are valid only for men and are robust to alternative definitions of health outcomes, unemployment events and model specifications. Our findings have important implications for research-based policies aimed to promote individuals’ well-being, especially in periods of high unemployment rates and economic distress.

KEYWORDS:

• Unemployment flows
• self-assessed health
• panel event study
• health stock

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• C23
• I12
• J60

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Social Fund- ESF) through the Operational Program “Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning” in the context of the project ‘Reinforcement of Postdoctoral Researchers - 2nd Cycle’ [MIS-5033021], implemented by the State Scholarships Foundation (IKY).