Ties between Health Policy, Early Health Problems, and Lifetime Earnings

Extant literature indicates that early-life health affects later labor market outcomes such as earnings and work effort. We examine whether this holds for multiple dimensions of health and regardless of a country's health care system. We ask whether mental and physical health problems and poor general health by age 15 have similar or different influences on lifetime earnings. We then ask whether the health care system influenced the estimated effects of early health problems on lifetime earnings. We expect that early health problems reduce earnings and that the most generous system is tied to the least negative long-term effects.