The Long-Term Effects of Measles Vaccination on Earnings and Employment. A Replication Study of Atwood (American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2022)

Mara Barschkett; Mathias Huebener; Andreas Leibing; Jan Marcus; Shushanik Margaryan

The Long-Term Effects of Measles Vaccination on Earnings and Employment. A Replication Study of Atwood (American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2022)

Authors

Mara Barschkett Federal Institute for Population Research and DIW Berlin
Mathias Huebener Federal Institut for Population Research
Andreas Leibing DIW Berlin and Freie Universität Berlin
Jan Marcus Freie Universität Berlin
Shushanik Margaryan Potsdam University

Keywords:

measles vaccine, health, labor market outcomes, replication, robustness

Abstract

Atwood (2022) analyzes the effects of the 1963 U.S. measles vaccination on long-run labor market outcomes, using a generalized difference-in-differences approach. We reproduce the results of this paper and perform a battery of robustness checks. Overall, we confirm that the measles vaccination had positive labor market effects. While the negative effect on the likelihood of living in poverty and the positive effect on the probability of being employed are very robust across the different specifications, the headline estimate---the effect on earnings---is more sensitive to the exclusion of certain regions and survey years.