IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i6p1526-d213562.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Air Pollution Affect Health and Medical Insurance Cost in the Elderly: An Empirical Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Tianlei Pi

    (School of Economics and Business Administration, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030, China)

  • Hongyan Wu

    (School of Economics and Business Administration, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030, China)

  • Xiaotong Li

    (Institute for Hospital Management, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China)

Abstract

In recent years, the health conditions of the elderly (the middle-aged and the old, which for this study means people over 50 years of age) have deteriorated along with the aggravation of air pollution, which led to the change of medical insurance costs. This phenomenon is particularly prominent in developing countries, such as China. A total of 15,892 research subjects from 56 prefecture-level cities in 23 provinces were collected from the database of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS). We investigated the effects of air pollution, physical health, and medical insurance costs among three mechanisms using logistics and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) hybrid cross-sectional regression, and we conducted a robust test. Overall, two pollutants, namely, PM10 and NO 2 , respectively showed an “inverted U-shaped” and “positive U-shaped” influencing path to health. In addition, when we studied the mechanism of air pollution affecting medical insurance costs, we found that air pollution can affect medical insurance costs through affecting self-rated health, and that the impact path is related to different diseases to some extent. At the same time, there was a certain negative correlation between air pollution and medical insurance: The higher the degree of air pollution, the worse the self-rated health, and the fewer opportunities there are to purchase medical insurance. It can be seen that air pollution affects the physical health of middle-aged and elderly people, thus indirectly and negatively affecting the medical insurance cost. Further research also found that the types of air pollutants in southern and northern China showed some differences. Specifically, NO 2 and SO 2 were the pollutants that harm the health of the elderly in the south and north, respectively.

Suggested Citation

  • Tianlei Pi & Hongyan Wu & Xiaotong Li, 2019. "Does Air Pollution Affect Health and Medical Insurance Cost in the Elderly: An Empirical Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-49, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:6:p:1526-:d:213562
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/6/1526/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/6/1526/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gerking, Shelby & Stanley, Linda R, 1986. "An Economic Analysis of Air Pollution and Health: The Case of St. Louis," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 68(1), pages 115-121, February.
    2. Neidell, Matthew J., 2004. "Air pollution, health, and socio-economic status: the effect of outdoor air quality on childhood asthma," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 1209-1236, November.
    3. Narayan, Paresh Kumar & Narayan, Seema, 2008. "Does environmental quality influence health expenditures? Empirical evidence from a panel of selected OECD countries," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 367-374, April.
    4. Wagstaff, Adam, 1986. "The demand for health : Some new empirical evidence," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 195-233, September.
    5. Grossman, Michael, 1972. "On the Concept of Health Capital and the Demand for Health," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(2), pages 223-255, March-Apr.
    6. J. Lelieveld & J. S. Evans & M. Fnais & D. Giannadaki & A. Pozzer, 2015. "The contribution of outdoor air pollution sources to premature mortality on a global scale," Nature, Nature, vol. 525(7569), pages 367-371, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wenxia Zhao, 2020. "Effect of air pollution on household insurance purchases. Evidence from China household finance survey data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-11, November.
    2. Qiaolong Huang & Yu Yvette Zhang & Qin Chen & Manxiu Ning, 2021. "Does Air Pollution Decrease Labor Supply of the Rural Middle-Aged and Elderly?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-17, March.
    3. Boqiang Lin & Kai Wei, 2022. "Does Use of Solid Cooking Fuels Increase Family Medical Expenses in China?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-17, January.
    4. Lingdi Zhao & Minghui Lu & Haixia Wang, 2024. "Research on the Effect of the Healthy Cities Pilot Policy on the Labor Supply Time of Middle-Aged and Elderly Workers in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-23, October.
    5. Ramesh Chandra Das & Enrico Ivaldi, 2021. "Is Pollution a Cost to Health? Theoretical and Empirical Inquiry for the World’s Leading Polluting Economies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-17, June.
    6. Changfeng Shi & Xinhui Liu & Min Gu & Qinghua Pang & Zhen Shi, 2021. "Evaluation of the impact of energy utilization and PM on respiratory health in China," Energy & Environment, , vol. 32(3), pages 380-402, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xiaocang Xu & Haoran Yang & Chang Li, 2022. "Theoretical Model and Actual Characteristics of Air Pollution Affecting Health Cost: A Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-14, March.
    2. Zhiming Yang & Zhen Wang & Xiao-Chen Yuan & Yu Qi & Yunquan Zhang & Weiqing Wang & Fanglin He & Jing Li, 2022. "Does income inequality aggravate the impacts of air pollution on physical health? Evidence from China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 2120-2144, February.
    3. Cinzia Di Novi, 2010. "The influence of traffic‐related pollution on individuals' life‐style: results from the BRFSS," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(11), pages 1318-1344, November.
    4. Lurås, Hilde, 2009. "A healthy lifestyle: The product of opportunities and preferences," HERO Online Working Paper Series 2001:11, University of Oslo, Health Economics Research Programme.
    5. Galama, Titus & Kapteyn, Arie, 2011. "Grossman’s missing health threshold," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 1044-1056.
    6. Cinzia Di Novi, 2007. "An Economic Evaluation of Life-Style and Air-pollution-related Damages: Results from the BRFSS," JEPS Working Papers 07-001, JEPS.
    7. Cédric Afsa & Pauline Givord, 2009. "Le rôle des conditions de travail dans les absences pour maladie : le cas des horaires irréguliers," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 187(1), pages 83-103.
    8. Colmer, Jonathan & Lin, Dajun & Liu, Siying & Shimshack, Jay, 2021. "Why are pollution damages lower in developed countries? Insights from high-Income, high-particulate matter Hong Kong," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    9. Andrew M. Jones & Audrey Laporte & Nigel Rice & Eugenio Zucchelli, 2019. "Dynamic panel data estimation of an integrated Grossman and Becker–Murphy model of health and addiction," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 703-733, February.
    10. Manoj K. Pandey, 2013. "Elderly's Health Shocks and Household's Ex-ante Poverty in India," ASARC Working Papers 2013-01, The Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre.
    11. Ovikuomagbe Oyedele & Sheriffdeen Adewale Tella, 2023. "Examining the Dynamics of Labour Force Participation, Carbon Dioxide Emission and Population Health in Sub-Saharan Africa," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 13(5), pages 382-393, September.
    12. Leslie Richardson & John B. Loomis & Patricia A. Champ, 2013. "Valuing Morbidity from Wildfire Smoke Exposure: A Comparison of Revealed and Stated Preference Techniques," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 89(1), pages 76-100.
    13. Gerdtham, Ulf-G & Johannesson, Magnus, 2001. "The relationship between happiness, health, and socio-economic factors: results based on Swedish microdata," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 553-557.
    14. Angulo, Ana María & Barberán, Ramón & Egea, Pilar & Mur, Jesús, 2011. "An analysis of health expenditure on a microdata population basis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 169-180.
    15. Zhong Zhao, 2008. "Health demand and health determinants in China," Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 77-98.
    16. Wei-Hua Qu & Guo-Hua Qu & Xin-Dong Zhang & Zhi-Jun Yan, 2018. "Effects of private car ownership, economic growth and medical services on healthcare expenditure in China: a dynamic panel data analysis," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 93(1), pages 167-188, August.
    17. Zhizhong Liu & Qianying Chen & Guangyue Liu & Xu Han, 2022. "Do Deep Regional Trade Agreements Improve Residents’ Health? A Cross-Country Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-16, November.
    18. Strulik, Holger & Trimborn, Timo, 2018. "Hyperbolic discounting can be good for your health," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 44-57.
    19. Jay Dev Dubey, 2021. "Measuring Income Elasticity of Healthcare-Seeking Behavior in India: A Conditional Quantile Regression Approach," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 19(4), pages 767-793, December.
    20. Carla Massidda, 2023. "Exploring the causal relationships between health, pollution, and growth: Evidence from OECD countries," RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA', FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 0(1), pages 13-28.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:6:p:1526-:d:213562. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.