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Health status, mental health and air quality: evidence from pensioners in Europe

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  • Giovanis, Eleftherios
  • Ozdamar, Oznur

Abstract

Environmental quality is an important determinant of individuals’ well-being and one of the main concerns of the governments is the improvement on air quality and the protection of public health. This is especially the case of sensitive demographic groups, such as the old aged people. However, the question this study attempts to answer is how do individuals value the effects on the environment. The study explores the effects of old and early public pension schemes, as well as the impact of air pollution on health status of retired citizens. The empirical analysis relies on detailed micro-level data derived from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). As proxies for health, we use the general health status and the Eurod mental health indicator.We examine two air pollutants: the sulphur dioxide (SO2) and ground-level ozone (O3). Next, we calculate the marginal willingness-to-pay (MWTP) which shows how much the people are willing to pay for improvement in air quality. We apply various quantitative techniques and approaches, including the fixed effects ordinary least squares (OLS) and the fixed effects instrumental variables (IV) approach. The last approach is applied to reduce the endogeneity problem coming from possible reverse causality between the air pollution, pensions and the health outcomes. For robustness check, we apply also a structural equation modelling (SEM) which is proper when the outcomes are latent variables. Based on our favoured IV estimates and the health status, we find that the MWTP values for one unit decrease in SO2 and O3 are respectively €221 and €88 per year. The respectiveMWTP values using the Eurod measure are €155 and €68. Overall, improvement of health status implies reduction in health expenditures, and in previous literature, ageing has been traditionally considered the most important determinant. However, this study shows that health lifestyle and socio-economic status, such as education and marital status, are more important, and furthermore, air pollution cannot be ignored in the agenda of policy makers.

Suggested Citation

  • Giovanis, Eleftherios & Ozdamar, Oznur, 2018. "Health status, mental health and air quality: evidence from pensioners in Europe," MPRA Paper 86483, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:86483
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    1. Maria Magdalena Bujnowska-Fedak & Łukasz Wysoczański, 2020. "Access to an Electronic Health Record: A Polish National Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-17, August.
    2. Papageorgiou, Athanasios, 2018. "The Effect of Immigration on the Well-Being of Native Populations: Evidence from the United Kingdom," MPRA Paper 93045, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Liqin Zhang & Lin Wu, 2021. "Effects of Environmental Quality Perception on Depression: Subjective Social Class as a Mediator," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-14, June.
    4. Sacit Hadi Akdede & Eleftherios Giovanis, 2022. "The Impact of Migration Flows on Well-Being of Elderly Natives and Migrants: Evidence from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 935-967, April.
    5. Eleftherios Giovanis & Oznur Ozdamar & Sahizer Samuk, 2021. "Health status and willingness-to-pay estimates for the benefits of improved recycling rates: evidence from Great Britain," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 1-28, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Air pollution; Early retirements; Health status; Old age pensions; Structural equation modelling;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H0 - Public Economics - - General
    • H00 - Public Economics - - General - - - General
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling

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