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The Effect of Income on Mortality - New Evidence for the Absence of a Causal Link

Author

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  • Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf
  • Horvath, Gerard Thomas
  • Ahammer, Alexander
Abstract
We analyze the effect of income on mortality in Austria using administrative social security data. To tackle potential endogeneity concerns arising in this context, we estimate time-invariant firm-specific wage components and use them as instruments for actual wages. While we do find quantitatively small yet statistically significant effects in our naïve least squares estimations, IV regressions reveal a robust zero-effect of income on ten-year death rates for prime-age workers, both in terms of coecient magnitude and statistical significance. These results are robust to a number of different sample specifications and both linear and non-linear estimation methods.

Suggested Citation

  • Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf & Horvath, Gerard Thomas & Ahammer, Alexander, 2015. "The Effect of Income on Mortality - New Evidence for the Absence of a Causal Link," CEPR Discussion Papers 10728, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10728
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    Cited by:

    1. Schnalzenberger, Mario, 2016. "Causal effect of income on health: Investigating two closely related policy reforms in Austria," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 7(C), pages 6-16.
    2. Alexander Ahammer & Thomas Schober, 2020. "Exploring variations in health‐care expenditures—What is the role of practice styles?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 683-699, June.
    3. Mathieu Lefèbvre & Pierre Pestieau & Gregory Ponthiere, 2019. "Premature mortality and poverty measurement in an OLG economy," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 621-664, April.
    4. Alexander Ahammer & Dominik Grübl & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, 2020. "The health externalities of downsizing," CDL Aging, Health, Labor working papers 2020-05, The Christian Doppler (CD) Laboratory Aging, Health, and the Labor Market, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    5. Alexander Ahammer, 2016. "How Physicians Affect Patients’ Employment Outcomes Through Deciding on Sick Leave Durations," Economics working papers 2016-05, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    6. Dorn, Florian & Lange, Berit & Braml, Martin & Gstrein, David & Nyirenda, John L.Z. & Vanella, Patrizio & Winter, Joachim & Fuest, Clemens & Krause, Gérard, 2023. "The challenge of estimating the direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 interventions – Toward an integrated economic and epidemiological approach," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    7. Alexander Ahammer, 2018. "Physicians, sick leave certificates, and patients' subsequent employment outcomes," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(6), pages 923-936, June.
    8. Schiele, Valentin & Schmitz, Hendrik, 2016. "Quantile treatment effects of job loss on health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 59-69.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wage decomposition; Income; Mortality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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