Health Shocks and the Long-Lasting Change in Health Behaviors: Evidence from Mexico

Jorge Agüero and Trinidad Beleche
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Trinidad Beleche: RAND Corporation

No 2016-26, Working papers from University of Connecticut, Department of Economics

Abstract: Worldwide, the leading causes of death could be avoided with health behaviors that are low-cost but also difficult to adopt. We show that exogenous health shocks could facilitate the adoption of these behaviors and provide long-lasting effects on health outcomes. Specifically, we exploit the spatial and temporal variation of the 2009 H1N1 influenza outbreak in Mexico and show that areas with a higher incidence of H1N1 experienced larger reductions in diarrhea-related cases. These reductions continue even three years after the shock ended. Changes in hand washing behaviors are behind these health improvements. Several robustness checks validate our findings and mechanism.

Keywords: health shocks; health behaviors; hand washing; children; diarrhea (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 57 pages
Date: 2016-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uct:uconnp:2016-26

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