Joint effects of ill-health, health shocks and social protection on the intensive margin of labour supply: evidence from Malawi

Abstract

Background: There is sparse evidence on the joint effects of ill-health, health shocks and social protection on the intensive margin of labour supply, particularly in developing countries. We interact ill-health and health shocks with access to social protection and estimate their joint effects on weekly hours of work. Methods: We employ a zero-inflated Poisson model to assess joint effects of ill-health, health shocks and social protection on weekly hours of work exploiting pooled repeated cross-sectional data from Malawi. Results: We find that overall, individuals who suffered from ill-health or a health shock, including an illness/injury, a hospital admission or a chronic illness and benefited from social protection, reduced their weekly hours of work. Conclusions: The study provides novel empirical evidence on the potential joint effects of ill-health, health shocks and social protection on the intensive margin of labour supply, shedding light on the role social protection can play in developing countries.