How is health associated with employment during later working life in Croatia?

Abstract

This paper investigates how self-rated health (SRH), as a measure of general health, is associated with employment during later working life in Croatia. Using data from Wave 6 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we estimate logistic regression models and study whether and to what extent the effects of SRH change with the inclusion of objective health measures. Worse SRH significantly decreases the probability of employment, but this effect becomes insignificant after account is taken of the objective health-related variables. This suggests that in Croatia, SRH and (a combination of) objective health indicators behave as substitutes, and either SRH or objective health measures can be adopted for the study of labour market participation. As worse health lowers the probability of employment during later working life in Croatia, in order to improve the working capacity of older adults, policymakers should strive for more efficient health promotion strategies and public health initiatives.