9. Conclusion
Using a more recent data set, this study used the framework laid out by Siegel
(2006) which analyzes the impact of a husband’s ill-health on an older wife’s labor
supply. It was extended to also analyze the impact of a wife’s ill health on a husband’s
labor supply in order to assess the extent to which men and women may respond
differently in this regard. Similar to Siegel’s findings, I found that the estimated effect of
a spouse’s ill-health on the other’s labor supply depends on the measurement used to
proxy for their health status. I also found that, although the direction of impact does not change, the magnitudes of the coefficients on these health measures depend on whether
we control for the possible endogeneity of the spouse’s earnings in these models.