Spousal Labour Supply and Home Production Adjustments to Health Shocks

Annarita Macchioni Giaquinto , Ca' Foscari University of Venice
Andrew Jones, University of York, Monash University University of Bergen;
Nigel Rice, University of York
Francesca Zantomio, Ca' Foscari University of Venice

In this paper we investigated spousal labour supply response to partner’s acute health shocks, considering labour market and home production adjustments jointly. Using data from Understanding society, our identification strategy exploited uncertainty in the timing partner’s acute health shock, defined as the occurrence of cancer, stroke and heart attack. Results, obtained through a combination of coarsened exact matching and entropy balancing matching, showed no significant health-related Added Worker Effect, as spouses in treated couples did not change their labour supply. Instead, partner’s health shocks had a significant and sizable effect on home production adjustments, irrespectively from spousal demographic gradient and socio-economic gradient, suggesting an important role for preferences in shaping the observed adjustments.

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 Presented in Session P2. Poster Session Ageing, Health and Mortality