Essays in health and labour economics

Abstract

The prevalence of obesity in the population of the UK is one of the most important health conditions with multidimensional consequences for the obese and all the society. Obesity not only has important effects on the health of individuals, but it is also correlated with many other aspects of the society and economy one of which is the effect of obesity in labour outcomes. Therefore, in this work, I provide evidence with regards to the extent that individuals’ BMI determines the labour market outcomes of a high and constantly increasing proportion of our society. More specifically, I estimate the causal impact of individuals’ BMI on the probability to be in employment and their hourly wage for the prime working age men and women in the UK. Additionally, I further expand the analysis by providing evidence regarding the impact of individuals’ BMI on their probability to be in a social interactive occupation. Moreover, I investigate whether being or not in a social interactive occupation can explain the wage differences among the obese and non-obese individuals. In addition to physical health, the study of mental health of individuals and how it can be affected by economic shocks are also of high interest in recent years. More specifically, I am interested to explore how the austerity measures introduced with the Welfare Reform Act in 2012 affected the mental health of the impacted individuals. Austerity measures introduced after the global economic crisis of 2007 had important consequences for the economies that adopted them and for the societies that had to adjust. This is the first study, to the best of my knowledge, to estimate the impact of those introduced austerity measures on individuals’ mental health for the case of the UK. I provide evidence regarding the causal effect of an increasing BMI on the probability of the prime working age men and women to be in employment and on their hourly wage for the case of the UK. I solve the endogeneity problem, that arises due to the reverse causality of BMI and labour market outcomes and/or due to omitted variable bias, with an Instrumental Variables (IV) approach. More specifically, I use a polygenic score of BMI as an IV which is the most updated method of estimating the impact of BMI on labour market outcomes. My analysis provides evidence that individuals’ probability to be in employment is not determined by their BMI. Also, with regards to the hourly wage I find a statistically significant effect of an increasing BMI for the case of women but not for men. Additionally, I estimate the impact of BMI on the probability of the prime working age men and women to work in a social interactive occupation. Furthermore, I provide evidence regarding the explanatory power of social interactive occupations on the wage gap of obese and non-obese individuals. According to my findings the probability of the prime working age men is not impacted by their BMI. For the case of the prime working age women, I find that experience a negative and statistically important impact. With regards to the explanatory power of being in social interactive occupation on the wage differences for obese and non-obese individuals I find that it is zero. Furthermore, I provide evidence regarding the impact of the austerity measures, introduced with the Welfare Reform Act in 2012 in the UK, on the mental health of individuals. My study contributes by providing, for the first time to the best of my knowledge, estimates regarding the impact of the welfare reforms, introduced in the UK with the Welfare Reform Act 2012, on individuals’ mental health. Based on the findings of my analysis the austerity measures related to the welfare reforms did not impact the mental health of individuals. The findings are robust when I conduct dynamic analysis, placebo falsification analysis, and heterogeneity analysis indicating that individuals do not experience differently an important worsen in their mental health due to the implementation of the welfare reforms.

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ORCID for Michael Vlassopoulos: orcid.org/0000-0003-3683-1466

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