Is Unemployment Good for your Waistline? Now? Ever? (2013)

Undergraduate: Jason Dunn

Faculty Advisor: Donna Gilleskie
Department: Economics

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This research provides empirical support for a theoretical explanation of how employment status can influence health contemporaneously. It also empirically tests whether one's past employment status can affect health today. Specifically, empirical evidence of these hypotheses is based on individual's body mass observations over time using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) data from 1983-2003. The unemployment rate in an individual's state was found to have a significant effect on body mass for white females and black males. Even after including controls for own unemployment status, the aggregate unemployment rate was significant for white females, black females, and black males. With regard to own individual employment status, males who were non-employed (either out of the work force or unemployed) showed a decrease in body mass while females who were non-employed showed an increase in body mass. However, the marginal effect on body mass over time when an individual was unemployed was shown to diminish over time. In other words, a female who has been unemployed for three years is expected to gain less body mass in the current year than a female who has been unemployed for only one year. The opposite is true for males.