Working Paper: NBER ID: w15256
Authors: Jason M. Fletcher; Jody L. Sindelar
Abstract: In this paper, we provide some of the first empirical evidence of whether early occupational choices are associated with lasting effects on health status, affecting individuals as they age. We take advantage of data on occupational histories available in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to examine this issue. To the PSID data, we merge historical Census data that reflect the labor market conditions when each individual in the PSID made his first occupational choice. These data on labor market conditions (e.g. state-level share of blue collar workers) allow us to instrument for occupational choice in order to alleviate endogeneity bias. We use parental occupation as additional instruments. Since our instruments may have indirect effects on later health, we also control for respondent's pre-labor market health, education and several family and state background characteristics in order to make the instruments more plausibly excludable. We find substantial evidence that a blue collar occupation at labor force entry is associated with decrements to later health status, ceteris paribus. These health effects are larger after controlling for endogeneity and are similar across sets of instruments. We also find differences in the effects of occupation by gender, race, and age.
Keywords: occupational choice; health outcomes; causal effects; panel study of income dynamics
JEL Codes: I10; I11
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| early occupational choices (J24) | later health outcomes (I12) |
| blue-collar employment at labor market entry (J29) | later health outcomes (I12) |
| blue-collar employment at labor market entry (J29) | worse health statuses (I14) |
| first job in blue-collar occupation (J29) | significantly worse health statuses (I14) |
| first job in blue-collar occupation (J29) | health declines among younger individuals (I12) |
| first job in blue-collar occupation (J29) | more pronounced health declines among males and non-white individuals (I14) |