Health Care Expenditure and Farm Income Loss: Evidence from Natural Disasters

Hung-Hao Chang and Chad Meyerhoefer

No 29898, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Farmers have higher rates of disability and illness than the general population and more volatile incomes due to frequent crop and livestock losses from extreme weather events. This raises concerns that sudden, weather-related drops in farm income could reduce access to health care for an already vulnerable population. We estimate the sensitivity of health care use to the loss in farm income brought about by natural disasters in Taiwan. To account for endogenous exposure to disaster risks, we estimate an instrumental variables model and find that farm income elasticities of demand for outpatient care and prescriptions range from 0.11 to 0.32. Reductions in health care use may be due, in part, to changes in time allocations within farm households.

JEL-codes: I1 Q12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-env and nep-hea
Note: DEV EH
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