The Effect of Income on Mortality: New Evidence for the Absence of a Causal Link

Alexander Ahammer, Gerard Horvath and Rudolf Winter-Ebmer

No 9176, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We analyze the effect of income on mortality in Austria using administrative social security data. To tackle potential endogeneity concerns arising in this context, we estimate time-invariant firm-specific wage components and use them as instruments for actual wages. While we do find quantitatively small yet statistically significant effects in our naïve least squares estimations, IV regressions reveal a robust zero-effect of income on ten-year death rates for prime-age workers, both in terms of coefficient magnitude and statistical significance. These results are robust to a number of different sample specifications and both linear and non-linear estimation methods.

Keywords: wage decomposition; mortality; income (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 J14 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2015-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published - published in: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society A, 2017, 180 (3), 793 - 816

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Related works:
Journal Article: The effect of income on mortality—new evidence for the absence of a causal link (2017)
Working Paper: The Effect of Income on Mortality - New Evidence for the Absence of a Causal Link (2015)
Working Paper: The Effect of Income on Mortality – New Evidence for the Absence of a Causal Link (2015)
Working Paper: The Effect of Income on Mortality – New Evidence for the Absence of a Causal Link (2015)
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