This paper investigates the effect of health shocks on household consumption and child nutrition. Using longitudinal data from rural Colombia we find that several items of household consumption, including medical expenditure, food consumption, and total consumption, increase following a recent illness event of an adult usually active in the labour market. In contrast to this, we find that girls¿ weight is negatively affected, as a consequence of the same illness event. The results on nutrition present an interesting gender bias, since we do not find any evidence that boys¿ nutritional status deteriorates. Our conclusion is that households make difficult intrahousehold choices when an illness shock hit them. The results have implications for the literature on testing for full insurance because it usually relies on household consumption net of medical expenditures as a measure of welfare. This fact shows that this literature might has underestimated the effects of health shocks on welfare. Este artículo investiga los efectos de los shock de salud sobre el consumo de los hogares y la nutrición infantil. A partir de una base de datos longitudinal que corresponde a datos del área rural de Colombia encontramos que varios elementos del consumo de los hogares, incluidos gastos médicos, consumo de alimentos y consumo total del hogar, aumentan después de que una reciente enfermedad afecte a un adulto del hogar activo en el mercado de trabajo. En contraposición a este resultado, encontramos que la nutrición de los niños se ve negativamente afectada. En concreto el peso de las niñas se reduce tras este shock de salud. Este resultado sobre nutrición presenta un interesante sesgo de género, ya que no encontramos evidencia de un deterioro nutricional en los niños. Nuestra conclusión es que los hogares tienen difícil elecciones dentro de los hogares cuando un shock de salud les sacude. Este resultado tiene implicaciones para la literatura que prueba la cobertura total de los hogares ya que esta atiende únicamente al consumo de los hogares, neto de los gastos médicos, como medida de bienestar. Este hecho muestra que esta literatura podría estar subestimando los efectos de los shock de salud sobre el bienestar de los hogares.
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Paper provided by Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie) in its series Working Papers. Serie EC with number
2008-14.
Find related papers by JEL classification: C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data C81 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Microeconomic Data D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
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