TY  - JOUR
AU  - Markowitz,Sara
AU  - Nesson,Erik
AU  - Robinson,Joshua
TI  - Are Pink Slips Better Than Flu Shots?  The Effects of Employment on Influenza Rates
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15796
PY  - 2010
Y2  - March 2010
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15796
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15796.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Sara Markowitz
Department of Economics
Emory University
1602 Fishburne Dr.
Atlanta, GA 30322
Tel: (404) 712-8167
E-Mail: sara.markowitz@emory.edu

Erik Nesson
Department of Economics
Miller College of Business
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306
Tel: 608-358-1658
E-Mail: etnesson@bsu.edu

Joshua Robinson
University of Alabama at Birmingham
E-Mail:  jjr@uab.edu
AB  - The seasonal influenza virus afflicts between five and twenty percent of the U.S. population each year, imposing significant costs on those who fall ill, their families, employers, and the health care system. The flu is transmitted via droplet spread or close contact, and certain environments, such as schools or offices, promote transmission. In this paper, we examine whether increases in labor market activities are associated with an increased incidence of the flu. Flu data come from the Centers for Disease Control. We check the robustness of our results using unique data from Google Flu Trends. Using a first-difference two stage least squares estimation approach, we find that a one percentage point increase in the employment rate increases the number of influenza related doctor visits by about 8.1 additional flu-related doctor visits per 1000 doctor visits for all causes.  To put this in perspective, on average, 33 additional people out of every 100,000 new employees will have a flu-related doctor visit.  The results are robust across several specifications.
ER  -