HEALTH AND UNEMPLOYMENT

This paper reviews the relationship between health and inadequate empl oyment, especially unemployment. Poor physical or mental health can le ad, via poor work performance, to job loss; however, studies that cont rol for such selection effects are still scarce except for a few healt h outcomes. For example, aggregate-level studies typically find a posi tive association between unemployment and suicide rates over time. At the individual level of analysis, panel surveys of laid-off workers te nd to find increased psychiatric problems such as depression and subst ance abuse. Few studies have evaluated interventions to prevent or red uce the adverse health effects of job loss. There have been even fewer studies of the health effects of other types of inadequate employment such as the increasingly prevalent forms of underemployment.