TY - JOUR AU - Sindelar,Jody L. AU - Fletcher,Jason AU - Falba,Tracy AU - Keenan,Patricia AU - Gallo,William T. TI - Impact of First Occupation on Health at Older Ages JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 13715 PY - 2007 Y2 - December 2007 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13715 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13715.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Jody L. Sindelar Yale School of Public Health Yale University School of Medicine 60 College Street, P.O. Box 208034 New Haven, CT 06520-8034 Tel: 203/785-5287 Fax: 203/785-6287 E-Mail: jody.sindelar@yale.edu Jason Fletcher Yale University School of Public Health 60 College Street, #303 New Haven, CT 06510 Tel: (203) 785-5670 Fax: (203) 785-6287 E-Mail: jason.fletcher@yale.edu Tracy A. Falba Economics Department Duke University 213 Social Sciences Box 90097 Durham, NC 27708 Tel: (919) 660-1806 E-Mail: tracy.falba@duke.edu Patricia S. Keenan Yale University School of Medicine Department of Epidemiology and Public Health Division of Health Policy and Administration 60 College Street, #300C New Haven, CT 06520 Tel: 203/785-3144 Fax: 203/785-6287 E-Mail: patricia.keenan@yale.edu William T. Gallo CUNY School of Public Health Hunter College / CUNY 425 E. 25th Street, Rm. 817 W New York, NY 10010 E-Mail: william.gallo@hunter.cuny.edu AB - Occupation is discussed as a social determinant of health. Occupation has received little attention in this light in the economics literature. We examine occupation in a life-course framework and use measures of first-occupation, initial health, and mother’s education. We contend that first occupation is a choice made relatively early in life that affects health outcomes at later ages. We examine first-occupation for two reasons: 1) there is growing evidence that early determinants affect later health and occupation has received little attention in this regard and 2) first occupation is predetermined in analysis of later health, which helps to address the issue of potential simultaneity. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) we estimate the impact of initial occupation on two measures of health later in life: respondent-reported fair/poor health and ever suffering a heart attack. The PSID offers the opportunity to examine a lifecycle perspective as we can examine the impact of early occupation on later health while controlling for several predetermined conditions such as mother’s education and health in youth. Estimates suggest that first-occupation has a durable impact on later health, ceteris paribus, but that the impact varies by health measure and the set of control variables in regression specifications. Early choice of occupation could be a critical factor in successful aging and this information may pave the way to developing more effective workplace and public policies to improve health in older ages. ER -