Inferring Occupation Arduousness from Poor Health Beyond the Age of 50
By: Vincent Vandenberghe
In the absence of a direct description of occupation arduousness, this paper shows how it can be inferred from poor health beyond the age of 50. Using retrospective lifetime data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) including the respondents’ professional career described with ISCO 2-digit, this paper finds a statistically significant link between many occupations and the risk of poor health beyond the age of 50. Next, we quantify the relative contribution of professional occupation to poor health compared to other factors decomposing the variance of health disparities between sources. We find that occupation’s arduousness – although a significant predictor of poor health – is less important than initial health endowment, demographics or country fixed effects in explaining differences in health at an older age.
Sources: @PapersSSRN
