Murat Anil Mercan

A research note on the relationship between long working hours and weight gain for older workers in the United States.

Working long hours may be related to obesity in older adults. No studies have focused on older workers and long work hours, although the risk of obesity is high among this population group. This study is the first attempt to investigate the relationship between obesity and the older workforce. Panel data from the Health and Retirement Study are examined using Cox regression techniques. We found that older workers who work more than 59 hr a week are more likely to gain weight than older workers who work less than 59 hr per week.

Late-Life Bereavement Association Between Familial Death and Weight Loss Among Elderly in the United States

Healthy aging is critical for the elderly to be independent and enjoy at least a satisfactory quality of life. However, late-life bereavement threatens healthy aging, as it may lead to adverse health effects. Using data from the Health and Retirement Survey, this study investigates the relationship between weight—specifically, body mass index (BMI)—and the loss of a parent, sibling, or spouse at an older age. It is the first attempt to investigate this relationship among the elderly population in the United States and makes the following notable contributions to the literature: (a) use of a large longitudinal dataset, (b) estimation of the effects of a familial death on a person’s BMI, and (c) investigation of the consequences of the bereavement for older people. Our results suggest that losing a family member at an older age results in a decrease in BMI.

Sector-Based Analysis of the Education-Occupation Mismatch in the Turkish Labor Market

The aim of this study was to investigate the existence of sectorial undereducation and overeducation problems in the Turkish labor market. In order to cope with this issue, the 2009 Household Labor Force Survey (TurkStat), which covers 145,934 individuals within 27 sectors, was utilized. An objective measure of education-occupation mismatch based on the mean level of schooling was used as the main tool in the analysis. The results revealed two important points. Firstly, high levels of undereducation and overeducation problems in the sectoral job groups were found. Secondly, the results showed that these problems are not specific to a few sectors, but they are widespread among many sectoral job groups, which has created serious problems for the Turkish economy. Moreover, we employed Oaxaca decomposition to investigate the effects of overeducation and undereducation on wage outcomes, and the findings indicate that education-occupation mismatches in the Turkish labor market are also reflected on such outcomes. Finally, the Turkish labor market penalizes workers who acquire less education than the adequate level to perform their jobs, whereas it rewards the workers who obtain more education than the adequate level, but not to a considerable extent.