Family Health Behaviors

Itzik Fadlon and Torben Nielsen ()

American Economic Review, 2019, vol. 109, issue 9, 3162-91

Abstract: We study how health behaviors are shaped through family spillovers. We leverage administrative data to identify the effects of health shocks on family members' consumption of preventive care and health-related behaviors, constructing counterfactuals for affected households using households that experience the same shock but a few years in the future. Spouses and adult children immediately improve their health behaviors and their responses are both significant and persistent. These spillovers are far-reaching as they cascade even to coworkers. While some responses are consistent with learning information about one's own health, the evidence points to salience as a major operative explanation.

JEL-codes: D15 D83 I12 J12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.20171993
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (79)

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Working Paper: Family Health Behaviors (2017)
Working Paper: Family Health Behaviors (2017)
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