Event Details

Lancaster Nova Seminar Series in Health Economics and Policy: Mario Martinez (Lancaster PhD student)

“The long term health effects of parental unemployment”

Evidence on the long-term health effects of parental unemployment on their children is mixed and the

mechanisms driving such effects remain poorly understood. This research focuses on the long-term effects

of parental unemployment spells experienced during different stages of childhood and early adolescence

on their children’s mental and physical health. The analysis exploits data drawn from the British Household

Panel Survey (BHPS) and the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS), linking detailed parental

socioeconomic information with their children. A Correlated Random Effects (CRE) probit model that

accounts for unobserved heterogeneity is used, as well as a non-linear Generalized Estimating Equations

(GEE) random effects estimator to account for the dependency structure of the data. Results indicate that

experiencing parental unemployment during early childhood and early adolescence has a negative effect on

the children’s likelihood of suffering from long-standing illnesses later in life, while experiencing parental

unemployment during middle childhood may affect mental health. Moreover, parental unemployment during

early adolescence increases the probability of both reporting poor or fair self-assessed health and the

likelihood of consuming prescribed medicines in young adulthood. However, there seems to be considerable

effect heterogeneity with children in low–socioeconomic status families, whereas higher frequencies of

parental unemployment spells lead to larger negative long-term health effects. These findings may help

policymakers shape appropriate policy responses to mitigate the psychological and physical burden derived

from parental unemployment, for example by targeting those children in already disadvantaged households.