"The Labor Market Effect of Health Improvement: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Rural China", October 3 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of Economics will host Ph.D. candidate Lulu Liu and her seminar "The Labor Market Effect of Health Improvement: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Rural China" on October 3. The working paper she has co-authored provides background:

[W]e examine the labor market impact of debilitating hypertension through health interventions. We take advantage of a randomized control trial, designed to improve hypertension management in rural China, which imposed two different interventions that affected health. We measure the severity of hypertension using systolic blood pressure. We utilize the exposure to the two interventions as instrumental variables, and find that one standard deviation decrease in systolic blood pressure can significantly increase income by 2.98%, an equivalent of 218 RMB. We examine the channels through which health can affect income, and there is evidence that the increase in income come from the increase of labor productivity, rather than the increase of working hours. Through cost-benefit analysis, we conclude that health interventions can result in big welfare gains.

The talk runs from 12:00 - 1:00 pm in 4716 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.