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Revisiting the impact of macroeconomic conditions on health behaviours

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  • Di Pietro, Giorgio

Abstract

This paper estimates the average population effect of macroeconomic conditions on health behaviours accounting for the heterogeneous impact of the business cycle on individuals. While previous studies use models relying on area-specific unemployment rates to estimate this average effect, this paper employs a model based on area-specific unemployment rates by gender and age group. The rationale for breaking down unemployment rates is that the severity of cyclical upturns and downturns does not only significantly vary across geographical areas, but also across gender and age. The empirical analysis uses microdata from the Italian Multipurpose Household Survey on Everyday Life Issues. The estimates suggest that models employing aggregated and disaggregated unemployment rate measures as a proxy for the business cycle produce similar findings for some health behaviours (such as smoking), whereas different results are obtained for others. While using unemployment rates by gender and age group, fruits and/or vegetables consumption turns out to be procyclical (a 1pp increase in this unemployment rate decreases the probability of consuming at least five daily fruit and/or vegetable servings by 0.0016pp), the opposite effect, though statistically insignificant, is observed once general unemployment rates are used. While both models conclude that physical activity declines during economic downturns, the size of the procyclical effect is much smaller when employing disaggregated rather than aggregated unemployment rates (a 1pp increase in the unemployment rate by gender and age group decreases the probability of doing any physical activity by 0.0017pp).

Suggested Citation

  • Di Pietro, Giorgio, 2018. "Revisiting the impact of macroeconomic conditions on health behaviours," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 173-181.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:28:y:2018:i:c:p:173-181
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2017.11.001
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    3. Juan M. Martín Álvarez & Alejandro Almeida & Aida Galiano & Antonio A. Golpe, 2020. "Asymmetric behavior of tobacco consumption in Spain across the business cycle: a long-term regional analysis," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 391-421, December.
    4. Lívia Madeira Triaca & Paulo de Andrade Jacinto & Marco Túlio Aniceto França & César Augusto Oviedo Tejada, 2020. "Does greater unemployment make people thinner in Brazil?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(10), pages 1279-1288, October.
    5. Maddalena Cavicchioli & Barbara Pistoresi, 2020. "Unfolding the relationship between mortality, economic fluctuations, and health in Italy," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 21(3), pages 351-362, April.
    6. Bertoli, Paola & Grembi, Veronica & Nguyen, The Linh Bao, 2020. "Birth in Hard Times When You Belong To Minorities," GLO Discussion Paper Series 729, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    7. Paola Bertoli & Veronica Grembi & The Linh Bao Nguyen, 2023. "Birth outcomes in hard times among minority ethnic groups," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(1), pages 263-294, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health behaviours; Unemployment; Business cycle; Italy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior

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