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on Health Economics |
| By: | Naoki Aizawa; Chao Fu |
| Abstract: | We study regulations on the health insurance system for working-age U.S. households, consisting of employer-sponsored health insurance (ESHI), individual health insurance exchange (HIX), and Medicaid. We develop and estimate an equilibrium model with rich heterogeneity across local markets, households, and firms, which highlights the inter-relationship between various components of the health insurance system as well as their relationship with the labor market. We estimate the model exploiting variations across states and policy environments before and after the Affordable Care Act. In counterfactual experiments, we consider policies to cross subsidize between ESHI and HIX, which include pure risk pooling between the two markets as a special case. We find such policies would benefit most households, improve average household welfare, and decrease government expenditure. Furthermore, the welfare gains are larger if the cross subsidization is interacted with Medicaid expansion. |
| JEL: | I11 J01 |
| Date: | 2020–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26713&r=all |
| By: | Vikesh Amin (Central Michigan University); Jere R. Behrman (University of Pennsylvania); Jason M. Fletcher (University of Wisconsin-Madison); Carlos A. Flores (California Polytechnic State University); Alfonso Flores-Lagunes (Syracuse University); Hans-Peter Kohler (University of Pennsylvania) |
| Abstract: | We estimate associations between a polygenic score (PGS) for depressive symptoms, schooling attainment and genetic-environmental (GxE) associations with depressive symptoms and depression for 29 years old in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and 53 years old in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS). We find some suggestive evidence that the association of the PGS with mental health is lower for more-schooled older individuals in the WLS, but no evidence in Add Health. Quantile regression estimates also show that in the WLS the GxE associations are statistically significant only in the upper parts of the conditional depressive symptoms score distribution. We assess the robustness of the OLS results to possible omitted variable bias by estimating sibling fixed-effect regressions. The sibling fixed-effect results must be qualified, in part due to low statistical power. However, they show that college education is associated with fewer depressive symptoms in both datasets. |
| Keywords: | Schooling; Mental Health; Genetics; Gene-Environment Interactions |
| JEL: | I21 I10 |
| Date: | 2020–02–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pen:papers:20-007&r=all |
| By: | Emma Gorman (University of Westminster & IZA, Bonn); Colm Harmon (University of Edinburgh); Silvia Mendolia (University of Edinburgh & IZA, Bonn); Anita Staneva (Griffith University); Ian Walker (Lancaster University Management School & IZA, Bonn) |
| Abstract: | We analyse the long-term effects of experiencing bullying victimisation in junior high school, using rich data on a large cohort of English adolescents. The data contain self-reports of five types of bullying and their frequency, for three waves, when the pupils were aged 13 to 16 years. We assess the effects of bullying victimisation on short- and long-term outcomes, including educational achievements, earnings, and mental ill-health at age 25 years using a variety of estimation strategies -- least squares, matching, and inverse probability weighting. We also consider attenuation associated with relying on self-reports. The detailed longitudinal data, linked to administrative data, allows us to control for many of the determinants of child outcomes that have been explored in previous literature, together with comprehensive sensitivity analyses, to assess the potential role of unobserved variables. The pattern of results strongly suggests that there are quantitatively important long run effects on victims -- stronger than correlation analysis would otherwise suggest. In particular, we find that both type of bullying and its intensity matters for long run outcomes such as obtaining a degree, income, and mental health. |
| Keywords: | bullying, education outcomes, long term outcomes |
| JEL: | I24 I26 J24 |
| Date: | 2020–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucl:cepeow:20-05&r=all |
| By: | Carpenter, Christopher S. (Vanderbilt University); Sansone, Dario (Georgetown University) |
| Abstract: | We provide the first quasi-experimental evidence on the relationship between cigarette taxes and sexual minority adult smoking by studying individuals in same-sex households (a large share of whom are in same-sex romantic relationships) from the 1996-2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. We find that cigarette taxes significantly reduced smoking among men and women in same-sex households, and the effects we find for men in same-sex households are significantly larger than the associated effects for men in different-sex households (the vast majority of whom are heterosexual married/partnered men). This result suggests that the sizable disparities in adult smoking rates between heterosexual and sexual minority men would have been even larger in the absence of stricter tobacco control policy. In line with previous research indicating that cigarette taxes have 'lost their bite', we find no significant relationship between cigarette taxes and sexual minority smoking in more recent years. |
| Keywords: | LGBT, cigarette tax, health disparities |
| JEL: | H20 H71 I12 I18 |
| Date: | 2020–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12915&r=all |
| By: | George Wehby; Robert Kaestner; Wei Lyu; Dhaval M. Dave |
| Abstract: | Effects of the minimum wage on labor market outcomes have been extensively debated and analyzed. Less studied, however, are other consequences of the minimum wage that stem from changes in a household’s income and labor supply. We examine the effects of the minimum wage on child health. We employ data from the National Survey of Children’s Health in conjunction with a difference-in-differences research design. We estimate effects of changes in minimum wage throughout childhood. We find evidence that an increase in the minimum wage throughout childhood is associated with a large improvement in child health. A particularly interesting finding is that much of the benefits of a higher minimum wage are associated with the period between birth and aged 5. |
| JEL: | I1 I14 I28 J20 J3 |
| Date: | 2020–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26691&r=all |
| By: | Schwandt, Hannes; Wachter, Till von (University of California, Los Angeles) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses several large cross-sectional data sources and a new approach to estimate midlife effects of entering the labor market in a recession on mortality by cause and various measures of socioeconomic status. We find that cohorts coming of age during the deep recession of the early 1980s suffer increases in mortality that appear in their late 30s and further strengthen through age 50. We show these mortality impacts are driven by disease-related causes such as heart disease, lung cancer, and liver disease, as well as drug overdoses. At the same time, unlucky middle-aged labor market entrants earn less and work more while receiving less welfare support. They are also less likely to be married, more likely to be divorced, and experience higher rates of childlessness. Our findings demonstrate that temporary disadvantages in the labor market during young adulthood can have substantial impacts on lifetime outcomes, can affect life and death in middle age, and go beyond the transitory initial career effects typically studied. |
| Keywords: | labor market entry conditions, long-term effects, mortality |
| JEL: | E32 I10 J10 |
| Date: | 2020–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12908&r=all |
| By: | Angelo Lorenti (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Christian Dudel (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Jo Mhairi Hale (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Mikko Myrskylä (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | The ability to work at older ages depends on health and education. Both accumulate starting very early in life. We assess how childhood disadvantages combine with education to affect working and health trajectories. Applying multistate period life tables to data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) for the period 2008-2014, we estimate how the residual life expectancy at age 50 is distributed in number of years of work and disability, by number of childhood disadvantages, gender, and race/ethnicity. Our findings indicate that number of childhood disadvantages is negatively associated with work and positively with disability, irrespective of gender and race/ethnicity. Childhood disadvantages intersect with low education resulting in shorter lives, and redistributing life years from work to disability. Among the highly educated, health and work differences between groups of childhood disadvantage are small. Combining multistate models and inverse probability weighting, we show that the return of high education is greater among the most disadvantaged. |
| Keywords: | USA, disability, early childhood, education, ethnicity, length of working life, Markov chains |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2020-006&r=all |
| By: | Philip Hemmings; Christopher Prinz |
| Abstract: | In Norway, sick-leave compensation and disability benefit is comprehensive and an important component of employee rights and benefits. However, despite policy attention, use of these systems is excessive; sickness absence and disability benefit recipiency levels remain extraordinarily high compared with other countries. This paper compares Norway’s reform experience and policy settings with those of three countries that also have comprehensive support and that have faced similar problems: Sweden, the Netherlands and Switzerland. All four countries have made a number of changes to sick leave and disability benefit systems. However, it appears that Norway’s reforms have so far been rather less successful. A broad impression in comparing the reforms is that Norway has conducted fewer measures involving reductions to entitlements and improvements in work incentives compared with the other countries. |
| Keywords: | disability benefit, Norway, sick leave, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands |
| JEL: | I38 |
| Date: | 2020–02–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaab:1601-en&r=all |
| By: | Yi Chen; Hanming Fang |
| Abstract: | China introduced its stringent family planning policies from the early 1970s, known as the "Later, Longer, Fewer" policies, and followed it with the One-Child Policy from 1979. The number of children born to Chinese parents significantly decreased from 5.7 in late 1960s to 2.5 in 1988. In Chen and Fang (2019), we show that family planning policies have drastically different effects on elderly parents' physical and mental well-beings. Whereas parents more exposed to the family planning policies consume more and enjoy slightly better physical health status, they report more severe depression symptoms. In this paper, we present a more complete picture of the difference in mental health among residents in rural and urban areas, between males and females, between different education groups, between those with one child and those with more than one children, and between widowed and non-widowed. We highlight the role of family support (from children and spouse) for the mental health status among the elderly Chinese. |
| JEL: | H31 I15 I18 J13 |
| Date: | 2020–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26690&r=all |
| By: | Yan, Binjian (Nanjing University); Chen, Xi (Yale University); Gill, Thomas M. (Yale University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the extent to which childhood circumstances contribute to health inequality in old age and how the contributions may vary across key dimensions of health. We link the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) in 2013 and 2015 with its Life History Survey in 2014 to quantify health inequality due to childhood circumstances for which they have little control. We evaluate comprehensive dimensions of health ranging from cognitive health, mental health, physical health, self-rated health to mortality. Our analytic sample includes about 8,000 Chinese persons age above 60. Using the Shapley value decomposition approach, we first show that childhood circumstances may explain 1-23 percent of health inequality in old age across multiple health outcomes. Second, while both direct health-related circumstances and indirect health-related circumstances contribute significantly to health inequality, the latter tends to be more sizable. Our findings support the value of a life course approach in identifying the key determinants of health in old age. |
| Keywords: | life course approach, inequality of opportunity, physical health, cognitive ability, mental health, mortality |
| JEL: | I14 D63 I18 J13 J14 |
| Date: | 2019–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12873&r=all |
| By: | Strupat,Christoph; Farfan Bertran,Maria Gabriela; Moritz,Laura; Negre Rossignoli,Mario; Vakis,Renos |
| Abstract: | Rising obesity rates are one of the most challenging public health issues in many emerging economies. The extent to which the nutritional composition of food consumed away from home is behind this rise, and the links with socioeconomic status, is not yet well understood. This paper explores this question by combining a representative restaurant survey that includes detailed information on the nutritional composition of the most widely consumed meals in Metropolitan Lima and a representative household survey with anthropometric measures of adult women. The findings indicate that the nutritional quality in restaurants located in the food environment of the households is significantly associated with higher rates of obesity and overweight. Up to 15 percent of the socioeconomic gradient in obesity is attributable to restaurant food quality, with sodium being the main driver. This highlights the importance of considering the food environment to inform public health policies, particularly for the poor. |
| Date: | 2019–11–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9066&r=all |
| By: | Janssen, Aljoscha (Singapore Management University) |
| Abstract: | This article examines the market power of branded prescription drugs faced with generic competition. Using prescription-level and matched socioeconomic panel data of the entire Swedish population between 2010 and 2016, I provide evidence for the key role of switching costs. A discontinuity surrounding patent expirations establishes that the effect is causal. Further, by comparing patients with and without medical education, I show that those without medical education experience higher brand premia. A unique feature of the Swedish market allows me to rule out patients’ inattention due to information costs as a source of market power. Therefore, switching costs and perceived quality differences are the key determinants of market power. I then estimate a dynamic oligopoly model with forward-looking firms which is used in counterfactual studies of the effect of switching costs and perceived quality differences on prices. First, an increase in the length of procurement mimics a reduction of switching costs and increases prices. While the effect of switching costs on prices in theory is ambiguous, moderate switching costs and sufficient competition for new patients increase competitive pressure. Second, if everyone acts as a medical expert and experiences fewer brand premia, prices decrease. |
| Keywords: | Switching Costs; Brand Premia; Behavioral Pricing; Pharmaceuticals |
| JEL: | D12 I11 L13 |
| Date: | 2020–02–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1317&r=all |
| By: | Aditya Goenka (University of Birmingham); Lin Liu (University of Liverpool) |
| Abstract: | Stylized facts show there is a clustering of countries in three balanced growth paths characterized by colorreddiffering income/growth, human capital and incidence of infectious diseases. To explain this, we develop a dynamic general equilibrium model incorporating SIS epidemiology dynamics, where households choose how much to invest in human and physical capital, as well as in controlling the risk of infection. In the decentralized economy households do not internalize the externality of controlling in- fection. There are multiple balanced growth paths where the endogenous prevalence of the disease determines whether human capital is accumulated or not, i.e. whether there is sustained economic growth or a poverty trap. We characterize the optimal public health policy that internalizes the disease externality and the subsidy that decentralizes it. Perversely, for countries in a poverty trap and most afflicted with diseases, the optimal subsidy is lower than for growing economies. We also study the quantitative effects of better control of diseases, and of increasing life expectancy on countries in a poverty trap. |
| Keywords: | Endogenous Growth; Infectious Diseases; Epidemiology; Poverty Trap; Public Health Policy; Human Capital |
| JEL: | E19 I10 D90 O11 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bir:birmec:19-11&r=all |
| By: | Ugofilippo Basellini; Søren Kjærgaard; Carlo Giovanni Camarda |
| Abstract: | Mortality forecasting has received increasing interest during recent decades due to the negative financial effects of continuous longevity improvements on public and private institutions’ liabilities. However, little attention has been paid to forecasting mortality from a cohort perspective. In this article, we introduce a novel methodology to forecast adult cohort mortality from age-at-death distributions. We propose a relational model that associates a time-invariant standard to a series of fully and partially observed distributions. Relation is achieved via a transformation of the age-axis. We show that cohort forecasts can improve our understanding of mortality developments by capturing distinct cohort effects, which might be overlooked by a conventional age-period perspective. Moreover, mortality experiences of partially observed cohorts are routinely completed. We illustrate our methodology on adult female mortality for cohorts born between 1835 and 1970 in two high-longevity countries using data from the Human Mortality Database. |
| Keywords: | Mortality forecasting, Mortality modelling, Relational models, Cohort life table, Smoothing |
| Date: | 2020–01–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idg:wpaper:axafx5_3agsuwaphvlfk&r=all |
| By: | Joseph E. Aldy; Maximilian Auffhammer; Maureen L. Cropper; Arthur G. Fraas; Richard Morgenstern |
| Abstract: | Since 1970, transportation, power generation, and manufacturing have dramatically transformed as air pollutant emissions have fallen significantly. To evaluate the causal impacts of the Clean Air Act on these changes, we synthesize and review retrospective analyses of air quality regulations. The geographic heterogeneity in regulatory stringency common to many regulations has important implications for emissions, public health, compliance costs, and employment. Cap-and-trade programs have delivered greater emission reductions at lower cost than conventional regulatory mandates, but policy practice has fallen short of the cost-effective ideal. Implementing regulations in imperfectly competitive markets have also influenced the Clean Air Act’s benefits and costs. |
| JEL: | Q53 Q54 Q58 |
| Date: | 2020–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26687&r=all |
| By: | Aditya Goenka (University of Birmingham); Lin Liu (University of Liverpool); William Pouliot (University of Birmingham) |
| Abstract: | We study dynamically consistent policy in a neoclassical overlapping generations growth model where pollution externalities undermine health but are mitigated via tax-financed abatement. With arbitrarily constant taxation, two steady states arise: an unstable 'poverty trap' and a 'neoclassical' steady state near which the dynamics might either be monotonically convergent or oscillating. When the planner chooses a time consistent abatement path that maximises a weighted intergenerational sum of expected utility, the optimal tax is zero at low levels of capital and then a weakly increasing function of the capital stock. The non-homogeneity of the tax function along with its feedback effect on savings induces additional steady states, stability reversals and oscillations. |
| Keywords: | Time consistency, pollution, mortality, overlapping generations model, poverty traps, endogenous fluctuations, optimal environmental policy. |
| JEL: | O11 O13 O23 O44 E32 H21 H23 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bir:birmec:19-12&r=all |
| By: | Deiana, Claudio (University of Essex); Giua, Ludovica (European Commission, DG Joint Research Centre); Nistico, Roberto (University of Naples Federico II) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effect of variations in the price of opium in Afghanistan on per capita dispensation of prescription opioids in the US. Quarterly county-level data for 2003-2016 indicate that reductions in opium prices significantly increase the quantity of opioids prescribed. The increase involves natural and semi-synthetic but not fully synthetics opioids, therefore suggesting that the effect is moderated by the amount of opium contained in the products. While this evidence could suggest a pass-through of lower production costs to retail prices, boosting patients' demand for opioids, we fail to detect significant effects of changes in retail prices on per capita dispensation. Moreover, firm-level analysis reveals that advertising expenses of opioid producers increase following opium price declines and so do their stock prices and profits. Overall, our findings suggest that supply-side economic incentives might have played an important role in the opioid epidemic. |
| Keywords: | prescription opioids, drugs, opium price, supply-side economic incentives |
| JEL: | I11 I12 I18 L65 |
| Date: | 2019–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12872&r=all |
| By: | Heath,Rachel; Mansuri,Ghazala; Rijkers,Bob |
| Abstract: | Workers in developing countries are subject to frequent health shocks. Using 10 weeks of high-frequency labor market data that were collected in urban Ghana, this paper documents that men are 9 percentage points more likely to work in weeks in which another worker in the household is unexpectedly ill. The paper provides suggestive evidence that these effects are strongest among very risk averse men, men in poorer households, and men who are the highest earners in their household. By contrast, women display a net zero response to another worker's illness, even women who are the highest earners in their household. |
| Date: | 2019–10–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9046&r=all |
| By: | Joseph,George; Haque,Sabrina Sharmin; Moqueet,Nazia Sultana; Hoo,Yi Rong |
| Abstract: | Water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions are increasingly recognized as essential for improving nutritional outcomes in children. Emerging literature describes the negative effects of poor sanitation on child growth. However, limited evidence has shown a link between water quality and nutritional outcomes. Similar to poor sanitation, it is plausible that water contaminated with E. coli could affect the nutritional status of children through various possible biological pathways, such as repeated episodes of diarrhea, environmental enteropathy, parasites, or other mechanisms that inhibit nutrient uptake and absorption. This study explores the relationship between contaminated water and stunting prevalence among children younger than age five years, using unique cross-sectional data from the 2012?13 Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, which was one of the first nationally representative surveys to include water quality testing for E. coli. E. coli contamination in drinking water is measured at household and source points. Stunting is measured using height-for-age z-scores for children under five, where a child is considered stunted when he or she is two or more standard deviations below the median of the World Health Organization reference population. The results of multiple probit regression models indicate a 6 percent increase in the prevalence of stunting in children who are exposed to highly contaminated drinking water at household point compared with those exposed to low-to-medium contamination. When contamination is measured at the source level, the association is greater, with a 9 percent increase in the likelihood of stunting when exposed to a high level of contamination. |
| Keywords: | Hydrology,Reproductive Health,Early Child and Children',Early Child and Children's Health,Nutrition,Small Private Water Supply Providers,Engineering,Water and Human Health,Health and Sanitation,Environmental Engineering,Sanitary Environmental Engineering,Water Supply and Sanitation Economics,Town Water Supply and Sanitation,Sanitation and Sewerage,Educational Sciences |
| Date: | 2019–11–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9054&r=all |
| By: | Maye Ehab Samy (University of Bamberg) |
| Abstract: | Youth in Egypt suffer from high rates of unemployment and inactivity. They are also heavily affected by the widespread use of informal employment. This paper addresses the effects of employment trans-itions on the health of youth in Egypt. It specifically focuses on the effect of temporary and informal employment compared to non-employment on the psychological health of youth. Using data from the Survey of Young People in Egypt for the years 2009 and 2014, I identify the causal effects of various employment transitions on mental health outcomes by estimating a matched difference-in-differences. Results show that the transition from nonemployment to employment improves the individual’s mental health in general. There are differences in the magnitude of the effect according to gender and the type of employment where those in informal and temporary employment have lower improvements compared to formal and permanent employment. |
| Date: | 2019–10–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1365&r=all |
| By: | Annan,Jeannie Ruth; Donald,Aletheia Amalia; Goldstein,Markus P.; Gonzalez Martinez,Paula Lorena; Koolwal,Gayatri B. |
| Abstract: | This paper examines women's power relative to that of their husbands in 23 Sub-Saharan African countries to determine how it affects women's health, reproductive outcomes, children's health, and children's education. The analysis uses a novel measure of women's empowerment that is closely linked to classical theories of power, built from spouses'often-conflicting reports of intrahousehold decision making. It finds that women's power substantially matters for health and various family and reproductive outcomes. Women taking power is also better for children's outcomes, in particular for girls'health, but it is worse for emotional violence. The results show the conceptual and analytical value of intrahousehold contention over decision making and expand the breadth of evidence on the importance of women's power for economic development. |
| Date: | 2019–10–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9034&r=all |
| By: | Wang Sonne,Soazic Elise; Verme,Paolo |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how parents'early childhood exposure to a refugee crisis impacts their children's health status. Based on Demographic and Health Survey data from Tanzania with the migration history of mothers and fathers, the analysis exploits geographical, time, and cohort variations using shock intensity and distance from refugee camps to instrument treatment. The findings show that children who were born to parents who were living closer to refugee camps during their early childhood have lower height for their age and are more likely to be stunted. The results are robust to alternative functional forms of the distance from camps, alternative specifications of the treatment and control groups, alternative cohorts of mothers, and several placebo tests. |
| Date: | 2019–12–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9075&r=all |
| By: | Maia Sieverding (American University of Beirut); Rasha Hassan (Population Council Egypt Country Office) |
| Abstract: | There is a well-established relationship between economic vulnerability and health. The study of this relationship is complicated by reverse causality – poor economic outcomes contribute to poor health and poor health can lead to worse economic outcomes. Yet even descriptive studies of the relationship between economic and health outcomes are lacking in the Middle East and North Africa region. The Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey 2018 includes a range of new health measures, including the UN-Washington Group disability instrument, self-rated health, and the WHO-5 subjective wellbeing scale that allow us for the first time to conduct a detailed examination of the associations between economic vulnerability and health in the Egyptian population. We find a substantial burden of poor health among the working age and older populations in Egypt, particularly along measures of disability and subjective wellbeing. Several groups emerge as particularly vulnerable to poor health across health outcomes, including divorced women, the urban poor and particularly poor urban women, and those in precarious and hazardous forms of employment. Further multivariate studies are needed to disentangle the relationships between multiple forms of economic vulnerability and poor health |
| Date: | 2019–10–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:1364&r=all |
| By: | Wu, Ziting; Chen, Xi; Li, Guoxing; Tian, Lin; Wang, Zhan; Xiong, Xiuqin; Yang, Chuan; Zhou, Zijun; Pan, Xiaochuan |
| Abstract: | This study aims to fill the gap in our understanding about exposure to particulate matters with diameter less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) and attributable risks and economic costs of mental disorders (MDs). We identify the relationship between PM2.5 and risk of hospital admissions (HAs) for MDs in Beijing and measure the attributable risk and economic cost. We apply a generalized additive model (GAM) with controls for time trend, meteorological conditions, holidays and day of the week. Stratified analyses are performed by age, gender and season. We further estimate health and economic burden of HAs for MDs attributable to PM2.5. A total of 17,252 HAs for MDs are collected. We show that PM2.5 accounts for substantial morbidity and economic burden of MDs. Specifically, a 10 μg/m3 daily increase in PM2.5 is associated with a 3.55% increase in the risk of HAs for MDs, and the effect is more pronounced for older males in colder weather. According to the WHO's air quality guidelines, 15.12 percent of HAs and 16.19 percent of related medical expenses for MDs are respectively attributable to PM2.5. |
| Keywords: | Attributable risk,Economic cost,Hospital admissions,Mental disorders,PM2.5 |
| JEL: | Q51 Q53 I24 I31 G11 J24 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:475&r=all |