P17: Adult health and productivity

The rapid changes in lifestyles and consumption patterns experienced in developing countries during the last two decades were accompanied by an alarming increase in the prevalence of diabetes: According to the 2010 Global Burden of Disease Study, the number of deaths attributable to diabetes mellitus nearly doubled from 1990 to 2010, while the age standardized death rate rose by almost 20%. Given these alarming figures, it is crucial to understand how the diabetes pandemic affects individuals and what it implies for future social policies. One important aspect to consider is the effect of diabetes-related complications (e.g., lower limb amputations) on labor market outcomes.

This project intends to close this gap in the literature by conducting a field survey and thus analyze the effect of diabetes on individual labor market outcomes. Given that the probability to develop type-2 diabetes highly depends on risk factors which can be influenced by behavior, we intend to identify underlying factors affecting both the prevalence of diabetes and labor market outcomes.