The Impact of Health on Labor Market Outcomes: Experimental Evidence from MRFIT

Melvin Stephens and Desmond Toohey ()

No 24231, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: While economists have posited that health investments increase earnings, isolating the causal effect of health is challenging due both to reverse causality and unobserved heterogeneity. We examine the labor market effects of a randomized controlled trial, the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT), which monitored nearly 13,000 men for over six years. We find that this intervention, which provided a bundle of treatments to reduce coronary heart disease mortality, increased earnings and family income. We find few differences in estimated gains by baseline health and occupation characteristics. Reductions in serious illnesses and work-limiting disabilities likely contributed to the observed gains.

JEL-codes: I12 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-hea and nep-lma
Note: EH LS
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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