Health risks and labour supply
Evidence from the Covid ‐19 pandemic
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9726201 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joseph Richardson (0009-0001-8898-2402, Lancaster University Management School Bailrigg Lancaster, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 92 |
| Issue | 367 |
| Pages | 959-978 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Economica (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-0427 • E-ISSN: 1468-0335 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/ecca.12574 |
| OpenAlex | W4408309864 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 42 |
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
2019-20 coronavirus outbreak · Business · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) · Economics · Infectious disease (medical specialty) · Outbreak · Pandemic · Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) · COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts · Employment and Welfare Studies · Global Health Care Issues · Internal Medicine · Medicine · Virology
Fear, lockdown, and diversion
Inequality in the impact of the coronavirus shock
How many jobs can be done at home?
Factors associated with Covid-19-related death using OpenSafely
Biases in Dynamic Models with Fixed Effects
Long Social Distancing
The Estimation of Compensating Wage Differentials
Unobservable Selection and Coefficient Stability
The Value of a Statistical Life
Risk Perceptions and Private Protective Behaviors
Which workers bear the burden of social distancing
Disparities in vulnerability to complications from Covid-19 arising from disparities in preexisting conditions in the United States
Employment Hysteresis from the Great Recession
Risky Business
| Highly cited | No |
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