Childhood Health Shocks, Comparative Advantage, and Long-Term Outcomes: Evidence from the Last Danish Polio Epidemic

Miriam Gensowski, Torben Nielsen (), Nete Munk Nielsen, Maya Rossin-Slater and Miriam Wüst

No 24753, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: A large literature documents that childhood health shocks have lasting negative consequences for adult outcomes. This paper demonstrates that the adversity of childhood physical disability can be mediated by individuals' educational and occupational choices, which reflect their comparative advantage. We merge records on children hospitalized with poliomyelitis during the 1952 Danish epidemic to census and administrative data, and exploit quasi-random variation in paralysis incidence. While childhood disability increases the likelihood of early retirement and disability pension receipt at age 50, paralytic polio survivors obtain higher education and are more likely to work in white-collar and computer-demanding jobs than their non-paralytic counterparts.

JEL-codes: I10 I14 I24 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published as Miriam Gensowski & Torben Heien Nielsen & Nete Munk Nielsen & Maya Rossin-Slater & Miriam Wüst, 2019. "Childhood Health Shocks, Comparative Advantage, and Long-Term Outcomes: Evidence from the Last Danish Polio Epidemic," Journal of Health Economics, .

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Journal Article: Childhood health shocks, comparative advantage, and long-term outcomes: Evidence from the last Danish polio epidemic (2019)
Working Paper: Childhood Health Shocks, Comparative Advantage, and Long-Term Outcomes: Evidence from the Last Danish Polio Epidemic (2018)
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