Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > Health risks and labour supply

Research

Links

Text available via DOI:

View graph of relations

Health risks and labour supply: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

E-pub ahead of print

Standard

Health risks and labour supply: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic. / Richardson, Joseph.
In: Economica, 07.03.2025.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

Harvard

Richardson, J 2025, 'Health risks and labour supply: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic', Economica. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12574

APA

Richardson, J. (2025). Health risks and labour supply: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic. Economica. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12574

Vancouver

Richardson J. Health risks and labour supply: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic. Economica. 2025 Mar 7. Epub 2025 Mar 7. doi: 10.1111/ecca.12574

Author

Richardson, Joseph. / Health risks and labour supply : evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic. In: Economica. 2025.

Bibtex

@article{e9a3ef9467d94162b6cdaf0164b5258b,
title = "Health risks and labour supply: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic",
abstract = "This paper explores the relationship between health risks from COVID-19 and UK labour supply, using pre-existing conditions as a source of variation in COVID-19 health risk. We find that those with pre-existing conditions were less likely to work during the pandemic after controlling for a rich set of covariates, including labour supplied pre-pandemic, but only when remote work was unavailable. This relationship begins by April 2020, persists through to September 2021, and shows signs of fading after COVID-19 risks had fallen in 2022. Our results are strong enough to explain a 1–1.5 percentage point drop in employment during the pandemic. Placebo tests confirm that our estimates do not reflect labour demand shocks, and that a negative relationship between pre-existing conditions and labour supplied, conditional upon the covariates, did not exist pre-pandemic.",
author = "Joseph Richardson",
year = "2025",
month = mar,
day = "7",
doi = "10.1111/ecca.12574",
language = "English",
journal = "Economica",
issn = "0013-0427",
publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Health risks and labour supply

T2 - evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic

AU - Richardson, Joseph

PY - 2025/3/7

Y1 - 2025/3/7

N2 - This paper explores the relationship between health risks from COVID-19 and UK labour supply, using pre-existing conditions as a source of variation in COVID-19 health risk. We find that those with pre-existing conditions were less likely to work during the pandemic after controlling for a rich set of covariates, including labour supplied pre-pandemic, but only when remote work was unavailable. This relationship begins by April 2020, persists through to September 2021, and shows signs of fading after COVID-19 risks had fallen in 2022. Our results are strong enough to explain a 1–1.5 percentage point drop in employment during the pandemic. Placebo tests confirm that our estimates do not reflect labour demand shocks, and that a negative relationship between pre-existing conditions and labour supplied, conditional upon the covariates, did not exist pre-pandemic.

AB - This paper explores the relationship between health risks from COVID-19 and UK labour supply, using pre-existing conditions as a source of variation in COVID-19 health risk. We find that those with pre-existing conditions were less likely to work during the pandemic after controlling for a rich set of covariates, including labour supplied pre-pandemic, but only when remote work was unavailable. This relationship begins by April 2020, persists through to September 2021, and shows signs of fading after COVID-19 risks had fallen in 2022. Our results are strong enough to explain a 1–1.5 percentage point drop in employment during the pandemic. Placebo tests confirm that our estimates do not reflect labour demand shocks, and that a negative relationship between pre-existing conditions and labour supplied, conditional upon the covariates, did not exist pre-pandemic.

U2 - 10.1111/ecca.12574

DO - 10.1111/ecca.12574

M3 - Journal article

JO - Economica

JF - Economica

SN - 0013-0427

ER -