Labor Supply Responses to Health Shocks : Evidence from High-Frequency Labor Market Data from Urban Ghana
Workers in developing countries are subject to frequent health shocks. Using 10 weeks of high-frequency labor market data that were collected in urban Ghana, this paper documents that men are 9 percentage points more likely to work in weeks in whic...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Washington, DC: World Bank
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/203631571687687334/Labor-Supply-Responses-to-Health-Shocks-Evidence-from-High-Frequency-Labor-Market-Data-from-Urban-Ghana http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32619 |
| Summary: | Workers in developing countries are
subject to frequent health shocks. Using 10 weeks of
high-frequency labor market data that were collected in
urban Ghana, this paper documents that men are 9 percentage
points more likely to work in weeks in which another worker
in the household is unexpectedly ill. The paper provides
suggestive evidence that these effects are strongest among
very risk averse men, men in poorer households, and men who
are the highest earners in their household. By contrast,
women display a net zero response to another worker's
illness, even women who are the highest earners in their household. |
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