Suchergebnisse

Resumen.Las investigaciones recientes sobre la relación entre desempleo y mortalidad arrojan resultados contradictorios. En este estudio se distingue entre efectos del desempleo inmediatos y a largo plazo, y se estima la relación utilizando datos agregados de 11 países europeos para el periodo 1971–2001. Los resultados revelan que los estudios anteriores según los cuales el aumento del desempleo conduce a un descenso de la mortalidad se referían a sus efectos inmediatos y que, a largo plazo, el desempleo se asocia con un aumento de la mortalidad de mucha mayor envergadura. Estos resultados son aplicables a casi todas las causas de mortalidad contempladas.

Résumé.Les recherches récentes sur la relation entre le chômage et la mortalité sont contradictoires. La présente étude utilise une méthodologie statistique pour décomposer les effets du chômage en effets temporaires et effets permanents, et évalue cette relation à l'aide de données agrégées collectées dans onze pays européens durant la période 1971–2001. Généralement, l'effet temporaire d'une hausse du chômage tend à faire baisser la mortalité, tandis que l'effet permanent tend à la faire augmenter. Il est important de noter que ce dernier est d'ordinaire plus fort que le premier. Ces résultats sont valables pour quasiment tous les indicateurs de la mortalité.

Abstract.Recent research on the relationship between unemployment and mortality is inconsistent. The statistical methodology used in this study decomposes the effect of unemployment on mortality into temporary and permanent effects and estimates the unemployment‐mortality relationship, using aggregate data from 11 European countries for the period 1971–2001. Decomposing the effect of unemployment in this way shows that while the temporary effect of an increase in unemployment is to lower mortality, the permanent effect is to increase it. Importantly, the permanent effect is generally much stronger than the temporary effect. These results hold true for nearly all mortality indicators studied.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of national unemployment rates on overall age and cause‐specific mortality rates in a panel sample of 13 European Union countries.Design/methodology/approachA fixed‐effects model is used to control for unobserved time‐invariant characteristics within countries. In addition, controls such as lifestyle risk factors, urbanisation and medical intervention indicators, for potential confounders are used.FindingsContrary to some recent evidence this study shows that there is a strong, positive relationship between adverse economic conditions and mortality. This is in contrast to findings about the US case.Originality/valueThis paper revisits the issue of the unemployment‐mortality relationship by utilising fixed effect models with controls for various indicators that are expected to affect mortality, in contrast to previous studies.

Using the European Community Household Panel (1994-2001), random effects models are estimated to assess the effect of income inequality on individuals' health. The individual's health status is measured by self assessment responses and by relatively objective measures of health. Country-level inequality measures are used after controlling for regional fixed effects. This implies that country level factors are the relevant approximations of individuals' reference groups. The results suggest that income inequality harms not only the health of the least well off but also the health of all individuals regardless of their position in the income distribution.