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Unemployment and self‐assessed health: evidence from panel data
Author(s) -
Böckerman Petri,
Ilmakunnas Pekka
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
health economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.55
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1099-1050
pISSN - 1057-9230
DOI - 10.1002/hec.1361
Subject(s) - unemployment , panel data , demographic economics , self rated health , economics , british household panel survey , cross sectional data , medicine , economic growth , gerontology , econometrics
We examine the relationship between unemployment and self‐assessed health using the European Community Household Panel for Finland over the period 1996–2001. Our results show that the event of becoming unemployed does not matter as such for self‐assessed health. The health status of those that end up being unemployed is lower than that of the continually employed. Therefore, persons who have poor health are being selected for the pool of the unemployed. This explains why, in a cross‐section, unemployment is associated with poor self‐assessed health. All in all, the cross‐sectional negative relationship between unemployment and self‐assessed health is not found longitudinally. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.