The Effects of Unemployment on Mortality following Workplace Downsizing and Workplace Closure: A Register-based Follow-up Study of Finnish Men and Women during Economic Boom and Recession

Abstract

Unemployment is strongly associated with mortality on the individual level. The reasons for this association are not fully established. The authors estimated the effects of unemployment and workplace downsizing on mortality during periods of low (1989) and high (1994) unemployment in Finland. They used prospective population registration data containing detailed socioeconomic and demographic information on two cohorts aged 35-64 years at the beginning of 1989 (N = 87,317) and 1994 (N = 72,419) followed up for mortality in 1990-1997 and 1995-2002, respectively. Unemployment was found to be associated with a 2.38-fold increase in the hazard of mortality after 1989 and with a 1.25-fold increase after 1994. No excess mortality was observed among those who, at baseline, were employed at workplaces that had experienced large reductions in employment. Furthermore, the association between unemployment and mortality was weaker among those working in establishments that had been strongly downsized. By showing that, in the context of either a high level of unemployment or rapid downsizing, the effects of unemployment on mortality are modest, this study provides strong evidence of unaccounted confounding. Individual-level studies may thus overestimate the causal effects of unemployment on mortality.

Unemployment and Self-Assessed Health: Evidence from Panel Data

“…In contrast to papers that rely solely on the comparison of population averages, these studies provide somewhat more robust empirical evidence for the view that unemployment leads to deterioration in measures of health (Lahelma, 1989;Leino-Arjas et al 1999;Nyman, 2002). In contemporaneous work, Martikainen et al (2007) discover that workplace downsizing and workplace closures increase mortality among the affected workers, but the effects are modest in the context of high unemployment or rapid downsizing. Still, the underlying causal relationship between unemployment and health remains largely unsolved and has not been examined in the same way as in some papers in the international literature (e.g.…”

The Effect of Job Displacement on Couples’ Fertility Decisions

“…The career interruption itself may affect fertility since it increases uncertainty concerning future employment conditions and job instability ðStevens 1997ðStevens , 2001Farber 2007Þ. Job displacement can also influence fertility behavior through several noneconomic outcomes, such as divorce probability ðCharles and Stephens 2004;Eliason 2012Þ andhealth ðMartikainen, Mäki, andJäntti 2007;Sullivan and von Wachter 2009Þ. In order to make distinctions among these alternative channels, we investigate the effect of job loss on various outcomes, such as earnings, family income, employment, spouse's employment, employment stability, and divorce.…”

Unemployment and self‐assessed health: evidence from panel data

“…This makes it rather difficult to generalize the results obtained. Martikainen et al (2007) report that workplace downsizing and workplace closures increase mortality among the affected workers, but the effects are modest in the context of high unemployment or rapid downsizing.…”