Disability pension receipt in young adults : an analysis of the Swiss social protection and labour market (SESAM) data

Background: There has been an overall decreasing trend in the inflow into disability pension in Switzerland since 2003 with the exception of young adults. Disablement in young adulthood reflects a particularly critical phenomenon given the potentially far-reaching long-term social, economic and health consequences. The aim of this study was therefore to identify factors for disability pension in young adults aged 18–39, living in Switzerland. Methods: We used the 2010–2015 cross-sections of the Social protection and labour market; a unique dataset linking microdata from the Swiss Labour Force Survey, the Swiss Central Compensation Office Register, and the Unemployment Insurance Register. Multiple logistic regression was employed to explore the association between demographic, socioeconomic, and health factors and disability pension in young adults living in Switzerland with long-term activity limitation (N = 5306). Alternative specifications of the benchmark model were estimated as robustness checks; and subsample analyses were conducted excluding (i) those aged 18-24 and (ii) those with partial disability pension. Results: Our regression results showed that those living without a working partner (OR 2.11; 95% CI 1.51–2.94) and without a child aged 0–14 (OR 2.15; 95% CI 1.48–3.12), born in Switzerland (OR 2.68; 95% CI 1.87–3.84), of higher age (OR 1.16; 95% CI 1.12–1.19), having completed at most lower secondary school (OR 3.26; 95% CI 2.24–4.76), lacking income throughout the four-year period prior to interview (OR 3.94; 95% CI 2.70–5.75), suffering from chronic illness (OR 4.52; 95% CI 2.83–7.19), and severe long-term activity limitation (OR 4.52; 95% CI 2.83–7.19) had higher odds of DP. Our findings were robust to alternative specifications and subsamples; and the alternative specifications revealed differences by learnt occupation, with highest odds for those without an occupational qualification (OR 5.93; 95% CI 3.72–9.46; p-value 0.000) and for those in ‘Manufacturing’ (OR 3.59; 95% CI 1.91–6.71) relative to ‘Health, education, culture, and science’. Conclusions: Most importantly, our results showed that educational and employment factors are of high relevance, as well as chronic morbidity and severe long-term activity limitation. From a policy perspective, early intervention should thus focus on the attainment of vocational and academic qualifications beyond the lower secondary level, facilitating school-to-work transition and labour market integration

Disability insurance benefit application in Switzerland : an analysis of linked administrative and survey data

Background The guiding principle of disability insurance in Switzerland is ‘rehabilitation before pension’. Access to rehabilitation measures to restore, maintain or improve the earning capacity of individuals with disabilities is essential. Gainful employment enables them to be an active part of society, improves their quality of life, and may mitigate the adverse health effects of disability pension receipt. The aim of this study was therefore to identify factors for disability insurance benefit application in Switzerland. Methods A novel dataset was created linking the 2010 Social Protection and Labour Market cross-section with administrative register data on disability insurance benefit application (2009–2018). Multiple logistic regression was employed to examine the associations between long-term health-related activity limitation, region of residence, demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and disability insurance benefit application in adults aged 18–55 (N = 18,448). Sensitivity analysis based on age was performed in individuals aged 18 to retirement age and aged 25 to 55. Results The regression results showed higher odds of disability insurance benefit application for individuals suffering from long-term health-related activity limitations (OR 2.88; 95% CI 1.29–6.44; p-value 0.010); born outside of Switzerland (OR 1.75; 95% CI 1.32–2.32; p-value 0.000); living without a working partner (OR 1.54; 95% CI 1.17–2.02; p-value 0.002); living without a child aged 0–14 years (OR 1.70; 95% CI 1.29–2.26; p-value 0.000); aged 18–39 (OR 1.41; 95% CI 1.09–1.83; p-value 0.009); with a learnt occupation in ‘Manufacturing’ (OR 2.75; 95% CI 1.68–4.50; p-value 0.000), ‘Construction and mining’ (OR 2.03; 95% CI 1.13–3.66; p-value 0.018), ‘Trade and transport’ (OR 2.12; 95% CI 1.30–3.45; p-value 0.003), ‘Business and administration’ (OR 1.68; 95% CI 1.03–2.72; p-value 0.036), and ‘Health, teaching, culture and science’ (OR 1.55; 95% CI 1.05–2.29; p-value 0.026); and renters (OR 1.44; 95% CI 1.00–1.94; p-value 0.016). The results were robust to alternative samples defined by age – albeit with some differences in regional and learnt occupational patterns. Conclusions The results suggested that disability insurance benefit application is more than a health-related phenomenon in Switzerland. However, the results provided a less consistent picture on the role of marginalization in application than in other European countries

Essays in labour economics and economics of education

The dissertation consists of three chapters. Chapter 1 focuses on the returns to education in Hungary and Germany in 2000. The study develops a system for comparison of the German and Hungarian education systems, which can be used in the empirical analysis to compare the returns to education across the two countries in a meaningful way. In the empirical analysis, Mincer earnings equation are estimated using ordinary least squers regression and quantile regression – in order to analyse both within- and between-education-group earnings differentials – using the “Hungarian National Labour Center’s Wage Survey” and the “German Socio-economic Panel”. Furthermore, the returns to different fields of study are estimated for the two countries. It is the analysis of the private-public sector earnings gap in Hungary for the decade of 1994 – 2003 which Chapter 2 of the dissertation proceeds with. This time period is particularly interesting not only from the perspective of transition but also given the minimum wage and public sector wage reforms in the early 2000s. The data is drawn from the “Hungarian National Labour Center’s Wage Survey” in order to examine the evolution of the private-public earnings gap for four groups of full-time male employees distinguished by education and the evolution of the returns to education in the private and public sectors separately. Chapter 3 focuses on the effect of school starting age and socio-economic factors on academic performance for Hungarian grade four students. The data for the empirical analysis is drawn from the “Progress in International Reading and Literacy Study” and the “Trends in Mathematics and Science Study”. In addition to OLS regressions, the study uses the control function approach, proposed by Garen (1984) and Heckman and Robb (1985), exploiting the exogenous variation in school starting age driven by the children’s month of birth and the cut-off date regulation for enrolment

Javíthat-e hosszútávon a közalkalmazottak relatív helyzetén egy 50%-os béremelés?: a köz-magán keresetkülönbség elemzése Magyarországon 2002 és 2008 között

We provide a detailed descriptive analysis of the long-term effects of the 50 percent public sector wage increase initiated by the government in 2002 in order to improve the relative situation of public sector workers. The aim of this policy was to attract high quality workers to the public sector, and to counteract the problem of "brain drain", the loss of high-skilled workers to abroad. To study the effects on the public-private income gap - and on high-skilled workers in particular - we employ empirical methods that allow us to take differences in the entire wage distribution (quantile regressions), workforce and firm composition (decomposition), as well as various potential biases into account. Our results indicate that there is a large income premium in favor of the private sector at the higher end of the income distribution, especially once we account for worker and firm characteristics, which suggests that the same person earns substantially less in the public sector. This is especially pronounced for high-skilled workers. The 50 percent increase initially improved the relative income of public sector workers, but in the longer run, income gaps returned to close to the pre-reform level and the distributional differences remained

A köz- és a magánszféra kereseti különbségei Magyarországon, 2002-2008

Részletes leíró elemzést nyújtunk a 2002. évi 50 százalékos közalkalmazotti béremelés hosszú távú hatásairól. Az intézkedés célja a közszférában dolgozók - különösen a magasan képzettek - relatív helyzetének javítása volt: hogy vonzóbbá váljanak a közszféra állásai, valamint megoldódjanak a magasan képzettek versenyszférába vándorlásából fakadó problémák. A béremelés kereseti különbségekre gyakorolt hatásait olyan empirikus módszerekkel elemezzük, amelyek lehetővé teszik, hogy a teljes béreloszláson vizsgáljuk a különbségeket (kvantilisregressziók), és figyelembe vegyük a munkahelyi és a vállalati jellemzők eltéréseit (dekompozíció), valamint különféle lehetséges torzításokat. A becslések azt mutatják, hogy a kereseteloszlás felső részén továbbra is jelentős a magánszférában megszerezhető bértöbblet, különösen ha figyelembe vesszük a dolgozói és a vállalati tulajdonságokat is. A béremelés kezdetben felzárkóztatta a közszféra dolgozóinak relatív keresetét, ám hosszabb távon a keresetkülönbségek visszatértek az intézkedés előtti szint közelébe, és a szektorok kereseteloszlásainak különbségei változatlanok maradtak

Factors associated with the choice of supplementary hospital insurance in Switzerland : an analysis of the Swiss Health Survey

Background: Switzerland has universal coverage via mandatory health insurance that covers a generous basket of health services. In addition to the basic coverage, the insured can buy supplementary insurance for the inpatient sector. Supplementary hospital insurance in Switzerland provides additional services during inpatient stays. Little is known about which factors are associated with the choice of semi-private and private hospital insurances. However, this is of importance to policy makers and the insured population, who might be concerned about a “two-class” inpatient care system. Therefore, the aim of the paper was to explore the factors associated with supplementary hospital insurance enrolment in Switzerland. Methods: We used the five most recent waves of the representative Swiss Health Survey (1997, 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017) to explore which factors are associated with supplementary hospital insurance enrolment in adults aged 25 or older. We estimated the same probit model for all five surveys waves and computed average marginal effects. Results: Our study shows that in all cross-sections the likelihood of enrolling in supplementary hospital insurance increased with higher age, education, household income and was higher for people with a strong preference for unrestricted choice of a specialist and with a higher-than-default deductible choice. The likelihood of supplementary hospital insurance enrolment was lower for the unemployed relative to their inactive counterparts and those living in rural areas relative to comparable urban residents. Ever-smoker status was not statistically significantly associated with supplementary hospital insurance choice. However, our findings indicated differences in estimates over the years regarding demographic as well as insurance-related variables. For example, women were more likely to choose supplementary hospital insurance than comparable men in earlier years. Conclusion: Most importantly, our results indicate that factors related to socioeconomic status – such as education, labour market status, and income – consistently show significant associations with the probability of having supplementary hospital insurance for the entire study period, as opposed to demographic variables – such as nationality and sex