Healthy Living in Hard Times
36 Pages Posted: 13 Mar 2003
There are 2 versions of this paper
Healthy Living in Hard Times
Healthy Living in Hard Times
Date Written: February 2003
Abstract
Using microdata for adults from the 1987-2000 years of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, I show that smoking and height-adjusted weight decline during temporary economic downturns while leisure-time physical activity rises. The drop in tobacco use occurs disproportionately among heavy smokers, the fall in body weight among the severely obese, and the increase in exercise among those who were completely inactive. Declining work hours may provide one reason why behaviors become healthier when the economy weakens, possibly by increasing the non-market time available for lifestyle investments. Conversely, there is little evidence that reductions in income play an important role. The overall conclusion is that changes in behaviors supply one mechanism for the procyclical variation in mortality and morbidity observed in recent research.
Keywords: Macroeconomic Conditions, Health, Lifestyle Behaviors
JEL Classification: E32, I12, J2
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
The Impact of Income on Mortality: Evidence from the Social Security Notch
-
Deaths Rise in Good Economic Times: Evidence from the OECD
By Ulf Gerdtham and Christopher J. Ruhm
-
Deaths Rise in Good Economic Times: Evidence from the OECD
By Ulf Gerdtham and Christopher J. Ruhm
-
Recessions Lower (Some) Mortality Rates: Evidence from Germany
-
Unemployment and Infant Health: Times-Series Evidence from the State of Tennessee
By Theodore Joyce and Naci H. Mocan