Austerity, precariousness, and the health status of Greek labour market participants: Retrospective cohort analysis of employed and unemployed persons in 2008-2009 and 2010-2011.

Pepita Barlow,Aaron Reeves,Martin Mckee,David Stuckler

doi:10.1057/jphp.2015.25

Abstract

Greece implemented the deepest austerity package in Europe during the Great Recession (from 2008), including reductions in severance pay and redundancy notice periods. To evaluate whether these measures worsened labour market participants' health status, we compared changes in self-reported health using two cohorts of employed individuals in Greece from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. During the initial recession (2008-2009) we found that self-reported health worsened both for those remaining in employment and those who lost jobs. Similarly, during the austerity programme (2010-2011) people who lost jobs experienced greater health declines. Importantly, individuals who remained employed in 2011 were also 25 per cent more likely to experience a health decline than in 2009. These harms appeared concentrated in people aged 45-54 who lost jobs. Our study moves beyond existing findings by demonstrating that austerity both exacerbates the negative health consequences of job loss and worsens the health of those still employed.

Highlights

Greece is widely regarded as the European country most adversely affected by recession and austerity measures
Our results suggest austerity policies increased the likelihood of poor health for those experiencing job loss over and above the effect of the recession, yet it is possible that this gap was created by the deepening of the recession, rather than austerity
To examine this alternative explanation, we explore whether the negative trends in self-reported health for those experiencing job loss are observed between 2009 and 2010, before austerity began

Summary

Introduction

Greece is widely regarded as the European country most adversely affected by recession and austerity measures. We show the overall trend in population health in Greece between 2006 and 2011 and estimate the association between job loss and experiencing poorer health in the recession cohort (2008–2009) and the austerity cohort (2010–2011).

Results

Conclusion