Wage and labor supply effects of illness in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana: instrumental variable estimates for days disabled

Sickness should make individuals less productive, but there are problems in measuring this effect. First, how is adult morbidity measured in a household survey? Second, how is the impact or morbidity on productivity inferred, if earning is partly used to improve health? Self-reported functional acti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of development economics 1997-08, Vol.53 (2), p.251-286
Main Authors: Schultz, T.Paul, Tansel, Aysit
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Côte d'Ivoire
Development economics
Disability
Economic models
Estimating techniques
Food prices
Ghana
Health
Health services
Illness
Illnesses
Ivory Coast
Labor supply
Labour market
Labour supply
Measuring instruments
Morbidity
Production functions
Productivity
Studies
Wages
Workers
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Summary:Sickness should make individuals less productive, but there are problems in measuring this effect. First, how is adult morbidity measured in a household survey? Second, how is the impact or morbidity on productivity inferred, if earning is partly used to improve health? Self-reported functional activity limitation due to illness is considered an indicator of morbidity for wage earners and self employed people. To deal with both the measurement and joint determination problems, an instrumental variable estimation approach is used, where local food prices and health services instrument for disability days that reduce wages by at least 10% and hours by 3% or more.
ISSN:0304-3878
1872-6089
DOI:10.1016/S0304-3878(97)00025-4