Illness and Wage Loss: Longitudinal Evidence from India (and Implications for the Universal Health Coverage Agenda)

Background: A key aim of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is to protect individuals and households against the financial risk of illness. Large-scale health insurance expansions are therefore a central focus of the UHC agenda. Importantly, however, health insurance does not protect against a key dimension of financial risk associated with illness: forgone wage income (due to short-term disability). In this paper, we quantify the economic burden of illness in India attributable--separately--to wage loss and to medical care spending, as well as differences in them across the socio-economic distribution. Methods: We use data from two Indian longitudinal household surveys: (i) the Village Dynamics in South Asia (VDSA) survey (1,350 households surveyed every month for 60 months between 2010 and 2015) and (ii) the Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS) (more than 40,000 households surveyed in 2005 and again in 2011). The VDSA allows us to study the economic dynamics of illness using high-frequency observations, and the IHDS allows us to confirm our findings in a nationally-representative sample. Both contain individual- and household-level information about illness, wage income, and medical spending over time. We use longitudinal variation in illness to estimate regression models of economic burden separately for wage loss and medical care spending across the socio-economic distribution. Our regression models include a series of fixed effects that control for differences in time-invariant household (or individual) characteristics and time-varying factors common across households. Findings: 1,184 households (88%) in the VDSA sample reported an episode of illness over 60 months, and 15770 households (40%) in the IHDS reported an illness in the preceding year. In the VDSA sample, on average, a day of illness was associated with a reduction in monthly per capita wage income of Rs 77 [95% CI -99 to -57] and an increase in monthly per capita medical spending of Rs 126 [95% CI 110-142]. Variation across the socio-economic distribution was substantial. Among the poorest households, wage loss due to illness is roughly 15% of total household spending--nearly three times greater than medical spending. Alternatively, among the most affluent households, wage loss is less than 5% of total household spending--and only one-third of medical spending. Put differently, wage loss accounts for more than 80% of the total economic burden of illness among the poorest households, but only about 20% of the economic burden of illness among the most affluent. Estimates from the IHDS sample show that this socio-economic gradient is present in the Indian population generally. Interpretation: Wage loss accounts for a substantial share of the total economic burden of illness in India--and disproportionately so among the poorest households. If Universal Health Coverage truly aims to protect households against the financial risk of illness--particularly poor households, the inclusion of wage loss insurance or another illness-related income replacement benefit is needed.

Penerapan Peraturan Menteri Ketenagakerjaan Nomor 6 Tahun 2016 di PT. Braga Konsep Solusi

Braga Concept Solutions domiciled in Denpasar City is a company in the field of tourism, especially in restaurants. When approaching religious holidays, every worker/labourer gets non-wage income, namely the Hari Raya Allowance. However, the workers/laborers at PT. Braga Solusi Concept has not yet received the Religious Holiday Allowance as stipulated in the regulation. The purpose of this study is to reveal the application of the provision of religious holiday allowances for workers / laborers at PT. Braga Concept Solutions and obstacles in providing holiday allowances for workers/laborers at PT. Braga Solution Concept. The method used in this study is an empirical legal research method with a sociological juridical approach. The sources of law used are primary and secondary sources of law. In analyzing the data that has been collected then used qualitative analysis techniques. The results of the study reveal that the conclusion of this study is the mechanism for providing Religious THR at PT. Braga Concept Solutions are not fully in accordance with applicable regulations. The obstacle faced is the lack of information about the applicable regulations. Dissemination of laws and regulations is very necessary for workers with the aim of making workers aware of their rights, including the mechanism for resolving them if there are obstacles, the goal is to prevent this from happening again.

Can Digital Inclusive Finance Narrow the Chinese Urban–Rural Income Gap? The Perspective of the Regional Urban–Rural Income Structure

This paper empirically studies the impact of digital inclusive finance on the income structure of urban and rural residents in eastern, central, and western China. The results show that, first, digital inclusive finance is beneficial to narrowing the urban–rural per capita disposable income gap that has a disequilibrium effect among regions. Second, narrowing the wage income, property income, and transfer income gaps is beneficial but has little effect on the net operating income gap between urban and rural residents. Third, narrowing the wage income, property income, and transfer income gaps reduces the total income gap, and the wage income gap has the strongest intermediary force. In the end, the paper puts forward corresponding countermeasures for the development of digital inclusive finance to narrow each of these income gaps in different regions of China.

“ACCESSIBILITY TO MINIMUM WAGE AND WAGE-INCOME DETERMINANTS: A STUDY OF THE RESIDENTIAL AND NONRESIDENTIAL PRIVATE SECURITY GUARDS IN THE CITY OF AHMEDABAD”

Demand for security services has exploded both for residential and non-residential premises due to mounting urbanization, rapid industrialization, and expansion of trade and commerce activities in the country in recent years. This has created enormous opportunity for employment specially for the poor who otherwise may have the least possibility securing a job. The private security industry being abysmally informal, it is perceived that workers here are underpaid. As such the plight of the guards have not improved much in this sector. The city of Ahmedabad is one of the major consumersofprivate security services. Income being one of the prominent determinants of well-being, it would be interesting to look into the aspect of accessibility to prescribed minimum wage,and examine what determines wage of the private security guards in this city.More specifically, this paper endeavours to throw light on the probability of access to minimum wage bythe guards at residential and non-residential premises in the city, and examine the various determinants affecting the income wage of the guards. Pertinent econometric modelshave been constructed for the purpose of the study. Result of data analysis shows that access to minimum wage is not universally entitled to the private security guards in the city of Ahmedabad. The study finds that the residential guards has less chance of having access to minimum wage than that of their non-residential counter in the city. However, both education and training have some positive bearing on the wage income of the guards.

Time Allocation between Paid and Unpaid Work among Men and Women: An Empirical Study of Indian Villages

The paper examines the time allocation between paid work (wage earning or self-employed work generally termed as employment work) and unpaid (domestic chores/care work generally termed as non-employment work) along with wage rates, imputed earnings, and occupational structure among men and women and according to different social groups to establish the extent to which the rural labour market is discriminated by sex and social group. The major objective of the paper is to show the differential in wage income between men and women in farm and non-farm activities. The paper also shows the division of time between employment and non-employment activities by men and women. The paper uses high-frequency data and applies econometric techniques to know the factors behind time allocation among different activities across gender. The study finds that males spend more hours on employment work and work at a higher wage rate than females. As a result, a vast monetary income gap between men and women is observed, even though women worked more hours if employment and non-employment activities are jointly taken into consideration. Time spent on employment work and non-employment (mainly domestic chores) has been found to vary significantly due to social identity, household wealth, land, income, education, and skill. The segregation of labour market by sex was evident in this study, with men shifting to non-farm occupations with greater monetary returns and continued dependence on women’s farm activities. Enhancing the ownership of land and other assets, encouraging women’s participation particularly among minorities, and improving health are some of the policy recommendations directed from this study to enhance participation in employment work and shifting towards higher wage income employment.

A Simple Measure to Study Multinational Income Inequality

Using the Big Mac Index, we offer a simple measure to study the real income inequality. We provide a multidimensional real income inequality analysis by exploring the Coefficient of Variation and the Big Mac Affordability of households across all income deciles of 28 countries for the years 2000 to 2013. We look more into a few of the most interesting countries in our analysis in order to have explanations for the wide range of income inequality we observe. We compare Denmark and Mexico as representatives of the “more equal” and “less equal” countries in our analysis, and we find a visible difference in the share of each decile to the top decile of income between the two countries. However, we observe that, although a more equal country, Denmark has been exp eriencing a rise in income inequality while a less equal country (Mexico) has been experiencing a reduction in income inequality. We also focus on the United States and study how it compares to Russia, a country that shows a different direction of income inequality compared to the U.S.A. We find that while the wage income inequality in Russia has been correlated inversely with its growth, in the U.S.A., the overall growth and wage income inequality have been positively correlated.

Trade Shocks and Labor Market Adjustment

We develop a framework to analyze the impact of trade shocks on a range of labor market adjustment margins in economies with a large number of sectors and labor groups. We provide analytic results characterizing equilibria. We show that labor groups earning a greater share of wage income in sectors with relative price declines experience a relative increase in unemployment and nonparticipation and decrease in wages and welfare. Our framework provides a guide for quantitative and empirical investigations into the labor market impacts of trade shocks. (JEL F16, J22, J31, J64)