Health, productivity and ageing

In this paper we provide a comparative cross-country analysis of individual age-wage profiles for different health statuses. Using semi-parametric regressions run on EU-SILC data we aim at answering the question on the relationship between individual health and productivity and its changes in the life cycle, separating the impact of health from traditional wage determinants. We find that although the age-productivity profiles vary much among countries, these differences are not influenced by the self-perceived health status. We are also interested in verifying whether the decrease in productivity at older age is quicker in Central and Eastern European countries, as Lovász and Rigó (2013) suggested that economic transformation and deep structural changes fasten the pace of productivity deterioration.