Inequality in individual mortality and economic conditions earlier in life

We analyze the effect of being born in a recession on the mortality rate later in life in conjunction with social class. We use individual data records from Dutch registers of birth, marriage, and death certificates, covering the period 1815-2000, and we merge these with historical data on macro-economic outcomes and health indicators. We estimate duration models and inequality measures. The results indicate that being born in a recession increases the mortality rate later in life for most of the population. Lower social classes suffer disproportionally from being born in recessions. This exacerbates mortality inequality. This is not affected by social mobility: upward mobility does not vary much with the business cycle at birth, for each social class.Death; longevity; recession; life expectancy; lifetimes; social inequality; social class; health

An empirical assessment of assortative matching in the labor market

In labor markets with worker and firm heterogeneity, the matching between firms and workers may be assortative, meaning that the most productive workers and firms team up. We investigate this with longitudinal population-wide matched employer-emplyee data from Portugal. Using dynamic panel data methods, we quantify a firm-specific productivity term for each firm, and we relate this to the skill distribution of workers in the firm. We find that there is positive assortative matching, in particular among long-lived firms. Using skill-specific estimates of an index of search frictions, we find that the results can only to a small extent be explained by heterogeneity of search frictions across worker skill groups.Positive assortative matching; matched employer-employee data; productivity; skill; unobserved heterogeneity; sorting; fixed effects

Persistencies in the Labour Market

Using longitudinal income-tax registers, we study how past labour market outcomes affect current labour market transition rates. We focus on hysteresis effects of the durations and incidence of previous spells out of work. We estimate flexible multi-state Mixed Proportional Hazard specifications for transition rates between employment, unemployment, and welfare/non-participation. Our main finding is that after longer periods of employment with high income, individuals' transition rates from unemployment to employment increase. Longer periods of non-employment generally decrease future transition rates to work, and sometimes also from work. The quantitative magnitude of persistency and hysteresis effects on inequality is modest.duration analysis, hysteresis, inequality, wages, unemployment, hazard rates, employment, income, work

Survey Non-response and Unemployment Duration

Social surveys are often used to estimate unemployment duration distributions. Survey non-response may then cause a bias. We study this using a unique dataset thatcombines survey information of individual workers with administrative records ofthe same workers. The latter provide information on unemployment durations andpersonal characteristics of all survey respondents and non-respondents. We developa method to empirically distinguish between two explanations for a bias in resultsbased on only survey data: (1) selectivity due to related unobserved determinantsof unemployment durations and non-response, and (2) a causal effect of a job exiton non-response. The latter may occur even in fully homogeneous populations. Themethodology exploits variation in the timing of the duration outcome relative tothe survey moment. The results show evidence for both explanations. We discussimplications for standard methods to deal with non-response bias

An econometric analysis of the mental-health effects of major events in the life of older individuals

Major events in the life of an older individual, such as retirement, a significant decrease in income, death of the spouse, disability, and a move to a nursing home, may affect the mental health status of the individual. For example, the individual may enter a prolonged depression. We investigate this using unique longitudinal panel data that track labor market behavior, health status, and major life events, over time. To deal with endogenous aspects of these events we apply fixed effects estimation methods. We find some strinkingly large effects of certain events on the occurence of depression. We relate the results to the health care and labor market policy towards older individuals.Death; retirement; income loss; disease; depression; health indicators; widowhood; care; panel data; endogeneity; fixed effects