Childhood Health Shocks, Comparative Advantage, and Long-Term Outcomes: Evidence from the Last Danish Polio Epidemic

Arbeitspapier

A large literature documents that childhood health shocks have lasting negative consequences for adult outcomes. This paper demonstrates that the adversity of childhood physical disability can be mediated by individuals' educational and occupational choices, which reflect their comparative advantage. We merge records on children hospitalized with poliomyelitis during the 1952 Danish epidemic to census and administrative data, and exploit quasi-random variation in paralysis incidence. While childhood disability increases the likelihood of early retirement and disability pension receipt at age 50, paralytic polio survivors obtain higher education and are more likely to work in white-collar and computer-demanding jobs than their non-paralytic counterparts.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 11630

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Health and Inequality ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Education and Inequality ; Health: General
• Subject: childhood health shocks ; occupational sorting ; comparative advantage ; long-term effects

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Gensowski, Miriam ; Nielsen, Torben Heien ; Nielsen, Nete Munk ; Rossin-Slater, Maya ; Wüst, Miriam
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2018

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/185090
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET