Health and Wellbeing Spillovers of a Partner's Cancer Diagnosis

Viola Angelini and Joan Costa-Font

No 16209, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Major health shocks can have far-reaching consequences on the welfare of an individual's support and emotional network. This paper investigates both long-term and short-term spillovers of a major non-communicable health shock, namely a cancer diagnosis (CD), on the health and well- being of an individual's partner. We rely on data from a longitudinal sample of individuals over fifty from 19 European countries. Our estimates provide economically relevant evidence of the spillovers of a CD on the partner's mental health and well-being. We document a negative association between a partner's CD and several measures of well-being, which is not driven by changes in health behaviors and persists over time for some dimensions. These findings suggest that focusing on the individual economic impact of a CD is likely to underestimate its long-term welfare effects unless spillovers on the emotional support network are considered.

Keywords: cancer; family spillovers; health behaviors; household well-being; employment; loneliness; welfare effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I18 J14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2023-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organisation , 2023, 212, 422 - 437

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Related works:
Journal Article: Health and wellbeing spillovers of a partner's cancer diagnosis (2023)
Working Paper: Health and Wellbeing Spillovers of a Partner’s Cancer Diagnosis (2023)
Working Paper: Health and wellbeing spillovers of a partner’s cancer diagnosis (2023)
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