Jolly NA, Theodoropoulos N. Health shocks and spousal labor supply: an international perspective.
J Popul Econ 2022;
36:973-1004. [PMID:
36569469 PMCID:
PMC9763794 DOI:
10.1007/s00148-022-00929-7]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2021] [Accepted: 12/05/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
This paper uses data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe to analyze the effect of spousal health shocks on own labor supply decisions. The results suggest minimal changes to the probability of work and the intensity of work for both husbands and wives of disabled spouses. Wives do, however, experience an increase in the probability of retirement after their husbands experience a work-limiting health shock. The results suggest that this increased probability is due to the desire to consume joint leisure. Finally, the analysis finds substantial cross-regional heterogeneity in the effects that spousal health shocks have on the various labor market outcomes examined here, which suggests an important role for country-specific factors in the estimates provided in the earlier literature.
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00148-022-00929-7.
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