Health effects of occupational change
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Fast changing technologies and the growing openness of economies to international trade sometimes make whole occupations in the affected countries redundant. People employed in these occupations have to switch to other occupations which they do not necessarily like. Such "forced" occupational change causes stress, which can be harmful for health. The effect of losing one's profession on health has not been previously studied. This paper is intended to fill this gap. I study the effect of occupational change on health and health-related behavior using data from the Russian economic transition, which was characterized by a massive occupational mobility. The results show that "forced" occupational change has a significant negative effect on individual health; it also increases smoking and alcohol consumption. These results survive a number of robustness checks.
JOUR
Lazareva, Olga
2009
SSRN Working Paper -id1357365
10.2139/ssrn.1357365
1425