Labor Supply, Schooling and the Returns to Healthcare in Tanzania

Achyuta Adhvaryu () and Anant Nyshadham
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Achyuta Adhvaryu: MEPH Health Policy and Administration, Yale University

Working Papers from Economic Growth Center, Yale University

Abstract: We estimate the effects of higher quality healthcare usage on health, labor supply and schooling outcomes for sick individuals in Tanzania. Using exogenous variation in the cost of formal sector healthcare to predict treatment choice, we show that using better quality care improves health outcomes and changes the allocation of time amongst productive activities. In particular, sick adults who receive better quality care reallocate time from non-farm to farm labor, leaving total labor hours unchanged. Among sick children, school attendance significantly increases as a result of receiving higher quality healthcare, but labor allocations are unaffected. We interpret these results as evidence that healthcare has heterogeneous effects on marginal productivity across productive activities and household members.

Keywords: labor supply; health shocks; schooling; Tanzania (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 J22 J43 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2011-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-dev, nep-hea and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Working Paper: Labor Supply, Schooling and the Returns to Healthcare in Tanzania (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:egc:wpaper:995

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