Files
Abstract
We live in a century of globalization and rising expenditures on health, but little rigorous
research has been done to understand the impacts of globalization on individuals’ health. We combine
Danish data on individuals’ health with Danish matched worker-firm data to understand how increases
in exports by firms affect their employees’ job injuries and sickness during 1995-2006. We find that
rising exports lead to higher rates of injury and sickness, mainly for women. A 10% exogenous
increase in exports increases women’s chance of severe job injury by 6.35%, severe depression, 2.51%,
using antithrombotic drugs, 7.70%, and hospitalizations due to heart attacks or strokes, 17.44%. Rising
exports also lead to higher work efforts by both men and women: less minor sick-leave days and more
total hours (regular plus over-time). During the 2007-2009 recession, Danish exports and on-the-job
injuries fell significantly. An out-of-sample prediction using our estimates accounts for 12%- 62% of
the actual decrease in job injury counts in this period. Finally, we develop a framework to calculate the
contemporaneous welfare losses due to higher rates of multiple types of injury and sickness, and show
that for the average male and female worker, the welfare loss from the adverse health outcomes is
substantial but small relative to the wage gains from rising exports (4.16% for men but 18.83% for
women).