TY - JOUR

T1 - Joint effects of ill-health, health shocks and social protection on the intensive margin of labour supply

T2 - evidence from Malawi

AU - Shawa, Ken Chamuva

AU - Hollingsworth, Bruce

AU - Zucchelli, Eugenio

PY - 2024/9/17

Y1 - 2024/9/17

N2 - Background: There is sparse evidence on the joint effects of ill-health, health shocks and social protection on the intensive margin of labour supply, particularly in developing countries. We interact ill-health and health shocks with access to social protection and estimate their joint effects on weekly hours of work. Methods: We employ a zero-inflated Poisson model to assess joint effects of ill-health, health shocks and social protection on weekly hours of work exploiting pooled repeated cross-sectional data from Malawi. Results: We find that overall, individuals who suffered from ill-health or a health shock, including an illness/injury, a hospital admission or a chronic illness and benefited from social protection, reduced their weekly hours of work. Conclusions: The study provides novel empirical evidence on the potential joint effects of ill-health, health shocks and social protection on the intensive margin of labour supply, shedding light on the role social protection can play in developing countries.

AB - Background: There is sparse evidence on the joint effects of ill-health, health shocks and social protection on the intensive margin of labour supply, particularly in developing countries. We interact ill-health and health shocks with access to social protection and estimate their joint effects on weekly hours of work. Methods: We employ a zero-inflated Poisson model to assess joint effects of ill-health, health shocks and social protection on weekly hours of work exploiting pooled repeated cross-sectional data from Malawi. Results: We find that overall, individuals who suffered from ill-health or a health shock, including an illness/injury, a hospital admission or a chronic illness and benefited from social protection, reduced their weekly hours of work. Conclusions: The study provides novel empirical evidence on the potential joint effects of ill-health, health shocks and social protection on the intensive margin of labour supply, shedding light on the role social protection can play in developing countries.

KW - Social protection

KW - Intensive margin of labour supply

KW - Malawi

KW - Ill-health

KW - Hours of work

KW - Pooled data

KW - Count data

KW - Health shocks

U2 - 10.1186/s13561-024-00548-w

DO - 10.1186/s13561-024-00548-w

M3 - Journal article

VL - 14

JO - Health Economics Review

JF - Health Economics Review

SN - 2191-1991

IS - 1

M1 - 75

ER -