Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Rezek, Jon

Committee Member

Campbell, Randall C.

Committee Member

Blair, Benjamin F.

Committee Member

Sullivan, Joe

Committee Member

Thomas, Kathleen

Date of Degree

12-9-2011

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Applied Economics

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

College of Business

Department

Department of Finance and Economics

Abstract

This dissertation is divided into five chapters consisting of three short essays that concentrate on economic analysis of health, savings and labor. The first essay is aimed at investigating the influence of increased work hours on individuals’ health and how this may differ between males and females. It is expected that increased hours of work will have a negative impact on health but this impact may be stronger for females. In the second essay, the relationship between individuals’ health and savings behavior is analyzed. Healthy individuals are expected to be more productive, earn higher incomes, and have lower medical expenditures compared to unhealthy individuals. It is therefore expected that individuals’ health will have a positive influence on their saving behavior. The third paper analyzes the effect of increased work, as proxied by labor force participation, on health, as proxied by life expectancy, at the macro level. The main aim of the analysis in the third essay is to investigate whether or not increased female labor force participation is a contributing factor to the narrowing gap between the life expectancy of females and males. In the final chapter of this dissertation, I provide a summary of my findings on the relationships between work, health, and savings. I also provide directions for future research.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/17054

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