The Effects of Unemployment due to Plant Closure on Self-rated Health in South Korea

Abstract

Rapidly increasing rate of unemployment in 1970-1980 greatly raised academic interests about the effects of unemployment on health. Many theories anticipated that unemployment would have negative effects on health. However, empirical studies mostly conducted in developed countries found that unemployment did not have the negative effects on health. To analyze causal effects of the unemployment on health, it is necessary to control the cause of unemployment. Existing studies have analyzed the effect of unemployment due to plant closure on health. Thus, this study analyzed the effect of the unemployment due to plant closure on self-rated health in Korea based on data from Korea Labor & Income Panel Study(2003-2012). The results of the study found that the unemployment due to plant closure had negative effects on self-rated health among unemployed men, whereas self-rated health of reemployed men were not affected by the unemployment due to plant closure. On the contrary, unemployment due to plant closure did not have negative effects on self-rated health among women.