Acute health shocks and labour market outcomes: Evidence from the post crash era
利用英国Understanding Society数据，研究癌症、中风或心脏病发作等急性健康冲击对工作年龄人群劳动力供给的影响，发现冲击显著增加退出劳动力市场的概率，并减少工作时间和收入，且对女性、老年人和严重受限者影响更大。
We investigate the labour supply response to an acute health shock for individuals of all working ages, in the post crash era, combining coarsened exact matching and entropy balancing to preprocess data prior to undertaking parametric regression. Identification exploits uncertainty in the timing of an acute health shock, defined by the incidence of cancer, stroke, or heart attack, based on data from Understanding Society. The main finding implies a substantial increase in the baseline probability of labour market exit along with reduced hours and earnings. Younger workers display a stronger labour market attachment than older counterparts, conditional on a health shock. Impacts are stronger for women, older workers, and those who experience more severe limitations and impairments. This is shown to be robust to a broad range of approaches to estimation. Sensitivity tests based on pre-treatment outcomes and using future health shocks as a placebo treatment support our identification strategy.