PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Rachel Heath
AU  - Ghazala Mansuri
AU  - Bob Rijkers
TI  - Labor Supply Responses to Health Shocks: Evidence from High-Frequency Labor Market Data from Urban Ghana
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.57.1.0618-9584R2
DP  - 2019 Nov 13
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 0618-9584R2
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2019/11/07/jhr.57.1.0618-9584R2.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2019/11/07/jhr.57.1.0618-9584R2.full
AB  - Workers in developing countries are subject to frequent health shocks. Using 10 weeks of high-frequency labor market data that were collected in urban Ghana, this paper documents that men are 9 percentage points more likely to work in weeks in which another worker in the household is unexpectedly ill. The paper provides suggestive evidence that these effects are strongest among very risk averse men, men in poorer households, and men who are the highest earners in their household. By contrast, women display a net zero response to another worker’s illness, even women who are the highest earners in their household.