Why are There So Many Long Term Sick in Britain?

Disney, Richard; Webb, Steven

doi:10.2307/2233816

Cited by 55 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…The education variables are jointly significant with more highly educated people in general reporting better health. The regional dummies are jointly insignificant in explaining self-reported health status, although previous studies of the incidence of disability benefit receipt (such as Disney and Webb, 1991) show strong regional disparities, suggesting that regional labour market differences might be important in explaining economic inactivity. However it should be borne in mind again that the question invites the respondent to compare their health status with people of a similar age, which may be geographically-specific.…”

Section: Estimationmentioning

confidence: 67%

Ill health and retirement in Britain: A panel data-based analysis

Disney

Emmerson

Wakefield

2006

Journal of Health Economics

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We examine the role of ill-health in retirement decisions in Britain, using the first eight waves of the British Household Panel Survey . As self-reported health status is likely to be endogenous to the retirement decision, we instrument self-reported health by a constructed 'health stock' measure using a set of health indicator variables and personal characteristics, as suggested by . Using both linear and non-linear fixed effects estimators, we show that adverse individual health shocks are an important predictor of individual retirement behaviour. We compare the impact of our constructed health measure on economic activity with that arising from the use of other health variables in the data set. We also examine the impact of the 1995 reform of disability benefits on the retirement decision. Key WordsIll health Retirement Disability insurance JEL classification H55 I12 J26 AcknowledgementsWe are grateful to the Nuffield Foundation for funding the project: 'A study of health and the labour market behaviour of older workers', and to Sharon Witherspoon in particular. Executive SummaryThis paper examines the role of ill-health in retirement decisions in Britain, using the first eight waves of the British Household Panel Survey . To tackle the problem that self-reported health status is likely to be endogenous to the retirement decision, a two-stage method, as suggested by , is adopted. The first stage is to construct a 'health stock' measure that is cleansed of the effects of reporting behaviour reflecting labour market participation. This measure is then introduced into a reduced form model of labour market (in)activity. At this latter stage, modelling how labour market transitions are related to time variation in health and other characteristics, helps to eliminate any unchanging person-specific association between characteristics and the decision to work.The 'health-stock' measure is constructed by regressing self-reported health on a set of more objective health indicator variables and a set of other personal characteristics.Few personal characteristics, other than those related to health, are found to be significant in explaining self-assessed health. Many of the health indicators are significant in the model, and as expected having health problems is associated with reporting poor health.The panel structure of the data set is exploited to estimate a non-linear 'fixedeffects' model that allows an exploration of how time variation in various characteristics relates to transitions out of (and in to) work. Deterioration in an individual's health is found to be strongly positively associated with movement out of work. Sensitivity analyses suggest that there may be some asymmetry between the respective effects of health deteriorations and improvements on transitions out of, and in to, work.The final section briefly considers a reform to the public disability insurance programme in 1995, which both tightened formal eligibility conditions and reduced the economic incentives to retire via the disability insu...

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Section: Estimationmentioning

confidence: 67%

Ill health and retirement in Britain: A panel data-based analysis

Disney

Emmerson

Wakefield

2006

Journal of Health Economics

Self Cite

278

260

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“…Our starting point is the idea that such programmes have been used to cushion recessions and to alleviate transitions into and from economic inactivity in regions of high unemployment, as suggested by a variety of studies including Beale and Nethercott (1988), Beatty and Fothergill (1996), Black, Daniel and Sanders (2002), Webb (1991), andMcVicar (2006). In addition, disability programmes have often been used as an alternative to early retirement through pension programmes, either because of restrictions on early retirement through conventional pension plans, or because disability programmes offer more attractive benefit levels or tax treatment of retirement benefits (Blöndal and Scarpetta, 1999;Gruber and Kubik, 1997;Wise, 1999, 2004;Haveman and Wolfe, 1984;Haveman, de Jong and Wolfe, 1991;Jiménez-Martin et al, 2006, Jiménez-Martin and Vall, 2009, and Riphahn, 1997.…”

Section: Disability Programmes and The Business Cyclementioning

confidence: 99%

Disability, capacity for work and the business cycle: an international perspective

2010

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"Important policy issues arise from the high and growing number of people claiming disability benefits for reasons of incapacity for work in OECD countries. Economic conditions play an important part in explaining both the stock of disability benefit claimants and inflows to and outflows from that stock. Employing a variety of cross-country and country-specific household panel data sets, as well as administrative data, we find strong evidence that local variations in unemployment have an important explanatory role for disability benefit receipt, with higher total enrolments, lower outflows from rolls and, often, higher inflows into disability rolls in regions and periods of above-average unemployment. In understanding the nature of the cyclical fluctuations and trends in disability it is important to distinguish between work disability and health disability. The former is likely to be influenced by economic conditions and welfare programmes while the latter evolves in a slower fashion with medical technology and demographic changes. There is little evidence of health disability being related to the business cycle, so cyclical variations are driven by work disability. The rise in unemployment due to the current global economic crisis is expected to increase the number of disability insurance claimants." Copyright (c) CEPR, CES, MSH, 2010.

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“…This calls into question the quality of both the sickness and unemployment statistics. For example in 4 the UK such concerns have been raised at the national level by Disney and Webb (1991) and at regional and local levels by Forsythe (1995), and by Beatty and Fothergill (1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term absenteeism due to sickness in Sweden. How long does it take and what happens after?

Andrén

2007

Eur J Health Econ

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In this paper, we analyze exits from long-term sickness spells in Sweden. Using spell data for more than 2500 people, aged 20-64 years during 1986-1991, and who had at least one sickness spell of at least 60 days during [1986][1987][1988][1989], the aim is to analyze the transition to different states, i.e., return to work, full disability pension, partial disability pension, and other exits from the labor force. Given the complexity of the exit decision, which encompasses both the individual's choice, the medical evaluation and the decision of the insurance adjudicator, we will consider the outcome as being the result of two aspects of the exit processes: an aspect that governs the duration of a spell prior the decision to exit, and another that governs the type of exit. Therefore, the analysis will be done in two steps: First, we will analyze the duration of the sickness spells, and then we will analyze the process that governs the type of exit. The results indicate that both individual characteristics, and push factors, such as regional unemployment, are important for both components of the decision process.

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Why are There So Many Long Term Sick in Britain?

Cited by 55 publications

References 3 publications

Ill health and retirement in Britain: A panel data-based analysis

Ill health and retirement in Britain: A panel data-based analysis

Disability, capacity for work and the business cycle: an international perspective

Long-term absenteeism due to sickness in Sweden. How long does it take and what happens after?

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