Poor Health and Occupation Changes

Alexandra Brown

No 569, National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) Discussion Papers from National Institute of Economic and Social Research

Abstract: Poor health impacts labour supply in varied and complex ways. This paper examines an under†explored aspect of this relationship: how suffering a health shock affects occupational mobility. Occupational changes commonly follow health shocks. Individuals are 10†15 per cent more likely to change occupation or employer in subsequent months relative to those who remain healthy. I document how these newly chosen occupations differ from the occupation mobility patterns of the healthy. Those who newly report a physical disability switch to less cognitive and less manual occupations, and those who report worsening mental health switch to less cognitive occupations, relative to their healthy counterparts. However, people whose health worsens do not change the interpersonal task intensity of their occupation. Lower cognitive intensity jobs consist of less complex tasks and fewer responsibilities, while less manual jobs can be less physically demanding for those with certain health conditions. Individuals who do not hold a degree and report worsening mental health appear to be particularly vulnerable; the largest declines in overall task intensity occur among this group

Keywords: Health economics; labour markets (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 J24 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://niesr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DP- ... ujtrHLRTMPF0CtY7ssTi

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nsr:niesrd:569

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) Discussion Papers from National Institute of Economic and Social Research 2 Dean Trench Street Smith Square London SW1P 3HE. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Library & Information Manager ().