The Effect Of Health Shocks On Labour Market Outcomes In Russia

NRU Higher School of Economics , 2020.

Aleksandrova E., Bagranova V., Gerry C.

This paper provides evidence for the effects of health shocks measured by any negative change in self-assessed health (SAH) status on employment, personal income, and wages in the Russian population. We employ the average treatment effect on the treated (ATET) estimator combined with propensity score and nearest neighbour matching and data from Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey-HSE (RLMS-HSE) for 2000–2018. We find that adverse health shocks are associated with a reduction in the probability of remaining employed by 2%, and losses of income and wages of 17% and 11%, respectively. For men, the consequences of health shocks are more drastic. Severe health shocks that are measured as a drop in SAH by two or more levels are associated with greater losses: respondents aged 30–45 years old lose approximately 60% of their monthly income for severe shocks, and those aged 46–72 lose 35–45% of their wages and 9–10% in the probability of remaining employed.

Keywords: difference-in-difference, matching, health shock, labour market outcomes