Job Loss, Unemployment Insurance and Health: Evidence from Brazil

Guilherme Amorim, Diogo Britto, Alexandre Fonseca and Breno Sampaio

No 22192, BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers from BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy

Abstract: We study the causal effects of job loss and unemployment insurance (UI) on hospitalization and mortality for Brazilian workers. We construct a novel dataset that merges millions of individual-level administrative records on employment, hospital discharges, and mortality for a period of 17 years. Using a difference-in-differences research design that compares laid-off workers from firms that experienced mass layoffs to similar workers in firms that did not, we find that job loss causes a 30% increase in the probability of male in-patient admission to public hospitals, and a 34% increase in the risk of male mortality. Our estimates are driven primarily by external causes and apply to both older and younger male workers. We find no effects on female outcomes, but children of both male and female workers are subjected to higher risks of hospitalization following their parent's job dismissal. Using a regression-discontinuity design that exploits variation in UI eligibility following job loss, we show that UI largely offsets the risk of hospitalization for older male workers. Our results indicate that governmental labor market policies can effectively mitigate a substantial portion of the adverse health impacts of job loss.

Keywords: job loss; unemployment insurance; hospitalization; mortality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 J63 J65 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 61
Date: 2022
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-hrm
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Related works:
Working Paper: Job Loss, Unemployment Insurance, and Health: Evidence from Brazil (2024)
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