Is Work Bad for Health? The Role of Constraint versus Choice

Eve Caroli and Andrea Bassanini

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Abstract: This paper reviews the literature on the impact of work on health. We consider work along two dimensions: (i) the intensive margin, i.e. how many hours an individual works when employed and (ii) the extensive margin, i.e. whether an individual is in employment or not. We show that most of the evidence on the negative health impact of work found in the literature is based on situations in which workers have essentially no control (no choice) over the amount of work they provide. In essence, what is detrimental to health is not so much work per se as much as the gap which may exist between the actual and the desired amount of work, both at the intensive and extensive margins.

Keywords: Individual Choice; Health; Work; Retirement; Hours Worked; Job Loss (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-12
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (41)

Published in Annals of Economics and Statistics, 2015, 119-120, pp.13-37

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Related works:
Journal Article: Is Work bad for Health ? The Role of Constraint Versus Choice (2015)
Working Paper: Is Work Bad for Health? The Role of Constraint versus Choice (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01247138

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