Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/185090 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 11630
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
A large literature documents that childhood health shocks have lasting negative consequences for adult outcomes. This paper demonstrates that the adversity of childhood physical disability can be mediated by individuals' educational and occupational choices, which reflect their comparative advantage. We merge records on children hospitalized with poliomyelitis during the 1952 Danish epidemic to census and administrative data, and exploit quasi-random variation in paralysis incidence. While childhood disability increases the likelihood of early retirement and disability pension receipt at age 50, paralytic polio survivors obtain higher education and are more likely to work in white-collar and computer-demanding jobs than their non-paralytic counterparts.
Subjects: 
childhood health shocks
occupational sorting
comparative advantage
long-term effects
JEL: 
I14
J24
I24
I10
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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