Disability and labour force participation in a developing country: Evidence from Turkish males

Abstract

This paper examines the influence of disability on labour force participation of males aged between 25 and 64 according to socio-economic background by using the 2012 Turkish Health Survey (THS). We define disability as an impairment of long-term health conditions that lasts more than six months which restricts individual in daily activities and categorise individuals as non-disabled, disabled with no limitations, disabled with some limitations and disabled with severe limitations. We observe that probability of being out of labour force is greater for disabled individuals at every age and low educated individuals experience more disabilities. Both probit and propensity score matching (PSM) results indicate negative association between severe levels of disability and labour force participation. © 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.