The Spillover Effects of Spousal Chronic Diseases on Married Couples' Labour Supply: Evidence from China

The objective of this study is to examine the spillover effects of chronic diseases experienced by spouses on their wives or husbands' labour supply. Using data from 2010 and 2012 of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this study employed a difference-in-difference (DD) strategy to investiga...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 16; no. 21; p. 4214
Main Authors Shen, Zheng, Zheng, Xiaodong, Tan, Yiwen
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland MDPI AG 30.10.2019
MDPI
Subjects
Adult
Caregivers - statistics & numerical data
China
Chronic Disease - economics
Chronic illnesses
Couples
Economic models
Employment
Employment - statistics & numerical data
Female
Health Status
Households
Humans
Labor supply
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Middle Aged
Socioeconomic Factors
Spouses - statistics & numerical data
China
labour supply
spillover
chronic disease
spouse
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Summary:The objective of this study is to examine the spillover effects of chronic diseases experienced by spouses on their wives or husbands' labour supply. Using data from 2010 and 2012 of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this study employed a difference-in-difference (DD) strategy to investigate the average treatment effect of affected adults on their spouses' working hours. The results show that, after their spouses were diagnosed with chronic diseases, the average weekly working hours of wives and husbands would be significantly reduced by 3.7-4.2 h and 3.8-4.4 h, respectively. Specially, the average weekly hours of full-time work would be reduced by 2.1-3.3 h for wives and 3.6-3.8 h for husbands. The effect was stronger for those married couples with lower socioeconomic status (SES), such as low-level education, family asset, non-labour income, while the effect was insignificant for high-level SES households. Therefore, as a result of the adverse spillover effects on household labour supply, chronic diseases could cause a greater loss of labour force productivity. Additionally, households in low levels of SES may suffer more losses from reduced labour supply when spousal chronic diseases take place.
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ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph16214214