Volume 26, Number 1 (Winter) 1991
Bound, John. 1991. "Self-Reported versus Objective Measures of Health in Retirement Models." Journal of Human Resources 26(1):106-138.
Labor supply models are sensitive to the measures of health used. When self-reported measures are used, health seems to play a larger role and economic factors a smaller one than when more objective measures are used. While this may indicate biases inherent in using self-reported measures, there are reasons to be suspicious of more objective measures as well. A statistical model incorporating both self-reported and objective measures of health shows the potential biases involved in using either measure or in using one to instrument the other. The model is initially unidentified, but incorporating outside information on the validity of self-reported measures confirms fears about both the self-reported and objective measures available on such data sets as the Retirement History Survey of the National Longitudinal Survey of Older Men.
The author is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Michigan, a research associate for the Population Studies Center of the University of Michigan, and a research affiliate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is grateful to Robert Barsky, Charlie Brown, Zvi Griliches, Jerry Hausman, Sanders Korenman, Gary Solon, and participants at workshops at the NBER and the University of Michigan for helpful comments and to Patrick Halas for excellent research assistance. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning in August 1991 through August 1994 from the author at the following address: The Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, 1225 South University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48104.
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