Health, productivity and ageing

Maciej Lis, Institute for Structural Research
Iga Magda, Warsaw School of Economics

We provide a comparative cross-country analysis of individual age-wage profiles for different health statuses. Using semi-parametric regressions run on EU-SILC data we aim at answering the question on the relationship between individual health and productivity (proxied by hourly wages, in line with the neoclassical theory) and its changes in the life cycle, separating the impact of health from traditional wage determinants. We also investigate the role of self-perceived health in explaining the decreasing employment rates among older age groups. We find that although the age-productivity profiles vary much among countries, these differences are not influenced by the self-perceived health status.