Estado de saúde e seus efeitos sobre rendimentos do trabalho

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the relationship between the health status of individuals and their income from work. Ill patients may lose productivity in their professional activity, they may need to be absent from work for a period, or even stop working. The study is conducted for Brazil, using the PNAD data of 2003 and 2008, which contain the health supplement. For the research were selected only male subjects aged between 18 and 65 years. The variables health and socioeconomic status, from the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) are created. For research, we use the propensity score matching method (Score Propensity). Non-healthy individuals (treatment group) are matched with a subset of healthy individuals (control group) to obtain similar attributes of both groups, wherein the unique feature that distinguish them is the health condition. The study uses three types of pairing: Nearest Neighbor (Nearest Neighbor Matching), pairing by Radius (Radius Matching) and pairing by Kernel. Then you use the mincerian model to measure the wage returns. The survey results demonstrate that the health status is relevant to explain income of the main job. The survey results show that, considering the three methods of matching, unhealthy individuals earn 13.2% to 21% less than healthy individuals. This effect is higher considering the regression model combined with matching, unhealthy individuals earn, on average, around 11.75% and 15.9% lower than the healthy individuals.