Relationships between disability and labour market outcomes in Europe
- Authors
- Publication Date
- Apr 05, 2024
- Source
- HAL
- Keywords
- Language
- English
- License
- Unknown
- External links
Abstract
The aim of this thesis is to explore the relationships between disability and labour market outcomes in Europe, utilising data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which provides a large sample of individuals followed over time (panel) from 28 European countries.The first chapter focuses on the impact of the onset of a disability on personal income, defined as the sum of wages and compensation incomes. The impact of disability is measured by implementing a matching before the onset of disability and then computing a weighted difference-in-differences. The results show a decrease in personal income due to a significant loss of wages that is not compensated by compensation incomes. Heterogeneity analyses reveal that in countries implementing strong integration measures for disabled individuals in the labour market and/or offering high compensation incomes, the onset of disability has no impact on personal income.The second chapter examines the modification of labour supply resulting from the onset of the partner's disability. This shock affecting the partner leads to changes in household income and consumption, potentially prompting the individual to increase their labour supply. Simultaneously, the individual may become an informal caregiver, requiring higher availability. Using retrospective SHARE data and a heterogeneity-robust difference-in-differences method, this chapter reveals a decrease in the labour supply of the partner that increases over the years following the onset of the partner's disability. Disparities between countries again highlight the protective role of social security systems. In countries with strong integration measures in the labour market for individuals with disabilities and easy access to compensation incomes, the onset of the partner's disability has no impact on labour supply.Finally, in the third chapter, we explore reverse causality by measuring the consequences of an unemployment spell on the probability of declaring a disabling disease. Initial investigations, using Logit models, reveal a positive relationship between these two variables at ages 45 and 50. When considering mental disabling diseases, the analyses indicate that a period of young unemployment (between 15 and 24 years) is associated with an increased probability of reporting disabling diseases by the age of 30.
