Family Health Spillovers: A Multidimensional Regression Discontinuity Design

Kampfen, F.;, O'Donnell, O.; and Qin, X.;

Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers from HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York

Abstract: A multidimensional regression discontinuity design reveals large and asymmetric spill overs from personalized health information within Chinese families. Warning a man that he has high blood pressure (BP) is estimated to reduce his wife’s BP by 7.5% and her probability of high BP by 24% points, while there is no female-to- male spill over. Warning a parent (father, particularly) reduces their adult child’s BP. Identified mechanisms are reduced adiposity (spousal) and healthier behavior (intergenerational). Asymmetry can be explained by joint health production under collective but gender-unequal household decision making. We demonstrate screening even for non-communicable disease risk can generate positive spill overs.

Keywords: health behavior; peer effects; information; collective household; screening (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 I12 I15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-08
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.york.ac.uk/media/economics/documents/h ... papers/2026/2612.pdf Main text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:yor:hectdg:26/12

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers from HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York HEDG/HERC, Department of Economics and Related Studies, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jane Rawlings ().