IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jhecon/v63y2019icp34-51.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unemployment insurance and cigarette smoking

Author

Listed:
  • Fu, Wei
  • Liu, Feng

Abstract

We provide evidence for the causal relationship between unemployment insurance (UI) and individuals’ smoking behavior using the 1995–2011 Current Population Survey-Tobacco Use Supplement data. Our identification relies on the exploitation of the exogenous variations of the maximum UI weekly benefits across states and over years. Instead of focusing on all unemployed people, we concentrate on those who are eligible for UI benefits. We find that when the maximum UI weekly benefit level increases by $100, smoking cessation increases by approximately 2.9 percentage points among the UI-eligible unemployed. The results are robust to various model specifications. We also explore the mechanism and find suggestive evidence that the increase in the maximum UI weekly benefit leads to a decrease in the probability of over-work of the respective spouse. Moreover, the unemployed who are less educated are more responsive to the increasing UI benefits.

Suggested Citation

  • Fu, Wei & Liu, Feng, 2019. "Unemployment insurance and cigarette smoking," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 34-51.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:63:y:2019:i:c:p:34-51
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2018.10.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167629618300560
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2018.10.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Topel, Robert H, 1983. "On Layoffs and Unemployment Insurance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(4), pages 541-559, September.
    2. Jacobson, Louis S & LaLonde, Robert J & Sullivan, Daniel G, 1993. "Earnings Losses of Displaced Workers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(4), pages 685-709, September.
    3. Louis S. Jacobson & Robert J. LaLonde & Daniel G. Sullivan, 1993. "Long-term earnings losses of high-seniority displaced workers," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, vol. 17(Nov), pages 2-20.
    4. Elira Kuka, 2020. "Quantifying the Benefits of Social Insurance: Unemployment Insurance and Health," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(3), pages 490-505, July.
    5. Mueller, Andreas, 2010. "On-the-job search and wage dispersion: New evidence from time use data," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 124-127, November.
    6. Philip DeCicca & Donald Kenkel & Alan Mathios & Yoon‐Jeong Shin & Jae‐Young Lim, 2008. "Youth smoking, cigarette prices, and anti‐smoking sentiment," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(6), pages 733-749, June.
    7. Deb, Partha & Gallo, William T. & Ayyagari, Padmaja & Fletcher, Jason M. & Sindelar, Jody L., 2011. "The effect of job loss on overweight and drinking," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 317-327, March.
    8. Kuhn, Andreas & Lalive, Rafael & Zweimüller, Josef, 2009. "The public health costs of job loss," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 1099-1115, December.
    9. Daniel Sullivan & Till von Wachter, 2009. "Job Displacement and Mortality: An Analysis Using Administrative Data," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(3), pages 1265-1306.
    10. Donald S. Kenkel & Maximilian D. Schmeiser & Carly Urban, 2014. "Is Smoking Inferior?: Evidence from Variation in the Earned Income Tax Credit," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 49(4), pages 1094-1120.
    11. Marcus Eliason & Donald Storrie, 2009. "Does Job Loss Shorten Life?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 44(2).
    12. Cylus, J. & Glymour, M.M. & Avendano, M., 2015. "Health effects of unemployment benefit program generosity," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 105(2), pages 317-323.
    13. Marianne Bitler & Hilary Hoynes, 2016. "The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same? The Safety Net and Poverty in the Great Recession," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(S1), pages 403-444.
    14. Feng Liu, 2010. "Cutting through the smoke: separating the effect of price on smoking initiation, relapse and cessation," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(23), pages 2921-2939.
    15. Walter, Stefan & Glymour, Maria & Avendano, Mauricio, 2014. "The health effects of US unemployment insurance policy: does income from unemployment benefits prevent cardiovascular disease?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 58516, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Browning, Martin & Crossley, Thomas F., 2001. "Unemployment insurance benefit levels and consumption changes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 1-23, April.
    17. Feldstein, Martin S, 1978. "The Effect of Unemployment Insurance on Temporary Layoff Unemployment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 68(5), pages 834-846, December.
    18. Tefft, Nathan, 2011. "Insights on unemployment, unemployment insurance, and mental health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 258-264, March.
    19. Krueger, Alan B. & Mueller, Andreas, 2010. "Job search and unemployment insurance: New evidence from time use data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(3-4), pages 298-307, April.
    20. Browning, Martin & Heinesen, Eskil, 2012. "Effect of job loss due to plant closure on mortality and hospitalization," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 599-616.
    21. Timothy J. Classen & Richard A. Dunn, 2012. "The effect of job loss and unemployment duration on suicide risk in the United States: a new look using mass‐layoffs and unemployment duration," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(3), pages 338-350, March.
    22. Carpenter, Christopher S. & McClellan, Chandler B. & Rees, Daniel I., 2017. "Economic conditions, illicit drug use, and substance use disorders in the United States," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 63-73.
    23. Gregory J. Colman & Dahlia K. Remler, 2008. "Vertical equity consequences of very high cigarette tax increases: If the poor are the ones smoking, how could cigarette tax increases be progressive?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 376-400.
    24. Mandal, Bidisha & Ayyagari, Padmaja & Gallo, William T., 2011. "Job loss and depression: The role of subjective expectations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(4), pages 576-583, February.
    25. Stefan Walter & Maria Glymour & Mauricio Avendano, 2014. "The Health Effects of US Unemployment Insurance Policy: Does Income from Unemployment Benefits Prevent Cardiovascular Disease?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(7), pages 1-8, July.
    26. Gruber, Jonathan, 1997. "The Consumption Smoothing Benefits of Unemployment Insurance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(1), pages 192-205, March.
    27. Bruce D. Meyer, 1989. "A Quasi-Experimental Approach to the Effects of Unemployment Insurance," NBER Working Papers 3159, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    28. William T. Gallo & Elizabeth H. Bradley & Joel A. Dubin & Richard N. Jones & Tracy A. Falba & Hsun-Mei Teng & Stanislav V. Kasl, 2006. "The Persistence of Depressive Symptoms in Older Workers Who Experience Involuntary Job Loss: Results From the Health and Retirement Survey," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 61(4), pages 221-228.
    29. Cheng Kai-Wen & Kenkel Don S, 2010. "U.S. Cigarette Demand: 1944-2004," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-21, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chen Huang & Feng Liu & Shijun You, 2021. "The impact of minimum wage increases on cigarette smoking," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(9), pages 2063-2091, September.
    2. Wojciech Gryzbowski & Aleksandra Adamicz & Hanna Wysocki, 2021. "The Social Externality of Health Insurance: Evidence from Unemployment Insurance Generosity and Children Mortality," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 2, pages 262-279, July.
    3. Juan M. Martín Álvarez & Alejandro Almeida & Aida Galiano & Antonio A. Golpe, 2020. "Asymmetric behavior of tobacco consumption in Spain across the business cycle: a long-term regional analysis," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 391-421, December.
    4. Jeong, Soyun & Fox, Ashley M., 2023. "Enhanced unemployment benefits, mental health, and substance use among low-income households during the COVID-19 pandemic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).
    5. Alexander Ahammer & Analisa Packham, 2020. "Dying to Work: Effects of Unemployment Insurance on Health," NBER Working Papers 27267, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Hamid Noghanibehambari & Mahmoud Salari, 2020. "Health benefits of social insurance," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(12), pages 1813-1822, December.
    7. Megan M. Reynolds & Patricia A. Homan, 2023. "Income Support Policy Packages and Birth Outcomes in U.S. States: An Ecological Analysis," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(4), pages 1-24, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Elira Kuka, 2020. "Quantifying the Benefits of Social Insurance: Unemployment Insurance and Health," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(3), pages 490-505, July.
    2. Everding, Jakob & Marcus, Jan, 2020. "The effect of unemployment on the smoking behavior of couples," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 29(2), pages 154-170.
    3. Bloemen, Hans & Hochguertel, Stefan & Zweerink, Jochem, 2018. "Job loss, firm-level heterogeneity and mortality: Evidence from administrative data," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 78-90.
    4. Gutierrez, Italo A., 2016. "Job insecurity, unemployment insurance and on-the-job search. Evidence from older American workers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 228-245.
    5. Wunder, Christoph & Zeydanli, Tugba, 2021. "The early costs of plant closures: Evidence on lead effects on workers’ subjective and objective outcomes," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 489-505.
    6. Been, J.; & Suari-Andreu, E.; & Knoef, M.;, 2022. "The short-run effects of unexpected job loss on health," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 22/21, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    7. Lídia Farré & Francesco Fasani & Hannes Mueller, 2018. "Feeling useless: the effect of unemployment on mental health in the Great Recession," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-34, December.
    8. Bíró, Anikó & Elek, Péter, 2020. "Job loss, disability insurance and health expenditure," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    9. Jason M. Lindo & Krishna Regmi & Isaac Swensen, 2020. "Stable Income, Stable Family," NBER Working Papers 27753, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Gathmann, Christina & Huttunen, Kristiina & Jernström, Laura & Sääksvuori, Lauri & Stitzing, Robin, 2020. "In Sickness and in Health: Job Displacement and Health Spillovers in Couples," IZA Discussion Papers 13329, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Nicholas A. Jolly, 2022. "The effects of job displacement on spousal health," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 123-152, March.
    12. Hummels, David & Munch, Jakob & Xiang, Chong, 2015. "No Pain, No Gain: The Effects of Exports on Job Injury and Sickness," 2015: Trade and Societal Well-Being, December 13-15, 2015, Clearwater Beach, Florida 229253, International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium.
    13. Shen, Yi, 2022. "Labor unemployment insurance and bank loans," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    14. Bassanini, Andrea & Caroli, Eve, 2014. "Is work bad for health? The role of constraint vs choice," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 1402, CEPREMAP.
    15. Maclean, Johanna Catherine, 2013. "The health effects of leaving school in a bad economy," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 951-964.
    16. Pagano, Marco, 2020. "Risk Sharing Within the Firm: A Primer," Foundations and Trends(R) in Finance, now publishers, vol. 12(2), pages 117-198, October.
    17. Verónica Alaimo & Mariano Bosch & David S. Kaplan & Carmen Pagés & Laura Ripani, 2015. "Jobs for Growth," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 90977, February.
    18. repec:dau:papers:123456789/12483 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Mörk, Eva & Sjögren, Anna & Svaleryd, Helena, 2020. "Consequences of parental job loss on the family environment and on human capital formation-Evidence from workplace closures," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    20. Jan Marcus, 2014. "Does Job Loss Make You Smoke and Gain Weight?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 81(324), pages 626-648, October.
    21. Mörk, Eva & Sjögren, Anna & Svaleryd, Helena, 2019. "Parental job loss and child human capital in the short and long run," Working Paper Series 2019:3, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Unemployment insurance; Cigarette smoking; Cessation; CPS-TUS; UI;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:63:y:2019:i:c:p:34-51. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505560 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.