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Low Income And Poor Health Choices:The Example Of Smoking

Author

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  • James Binkley

    (Dept. of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University)

Abstract

People with low incomes tend to make less healthy consumption choices than do high income people. In the case of food, agricultural economists have investigated whether this is due to the cost of a healthy diet. Studies of various aspects of the nutrition-income nexus have generally been inconclusive. We investigate a different possibility, motivated by the fact that low income individuals are most likely to be smokers, which cannot be due to limited budgets. Drawing on a body of related literature, we develop a model in which income serves not only as a budget constraint but also as a source of future utility. We test the model by estimating logistic models of beginning and quitting smoking. We find support for the idea that low income consumers make less healthy choices because they face lower costs in terms of foregone future utility.

Suggested Citation

  • James Binkley, 2010. "Low Income And Poor Health Choices:The Example Of Smoking," Working Papers 10-3, Purdue University, College of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:pae:wpaper:10-3
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Binkley, James K. & Young, Jeffrey S., 2022. "Deficient Dietary Behavior in Low-Income Americans: Assessing the Role of Diet Costs," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322055, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Zeng, Di & You, Wen & Mills, Bradford & Alwang, Jeffrey & Royster, Michael & Anson-Dwamena, Rexford, 2015. "A closer look at the rural-urban health disparities: Insights from four major diseases in the Commonwealth of Virginia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 62-68.
    3. Zasimova, Liudmila & Kossova, Elena & Ryazanova, Marina, 2014. "Understanding individual attitudes towards ban on smoking in public places," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 34(2), pages 95-119.
    4. Ren, Yanjun & Li, Hui & Wang, Xiaobing, 2019. "Family income and nutrition-related health: Evidence from food consumption in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 232(C), pages 58-76.
    5. Ren, Yanjun & Castro Campos, Bente & Loy, Jens-Peter & Brosig, Stephan, 2019. "Low-income and overweight in China: Evidence from a life-course utility model," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 18(8), pages 1753-1767.
    6. Hu, Xiaowen & Stowe, C. Jill, 2013. "The Effect of Income on Health Choices: Alcohol Use," 2013 Annual Meeting, February 2-5, 2013, Orlando, Florida 143060, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    7. Alagsam, Fuad & Schieffer, Jack, 2016. "The Mindlessness and Mindfulness of Secondary Eating," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235644, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    8. Ren, Yanjun & Castro Campos, Bente & Peng, Yanling & Glauben, Thomas, 2021. "Nutrition transition with accelerating urbanization? Empirical evidence from rural China," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 13(3).
    9. Carlo Ciccarelli & Pierpaolo Pierani & Silvia Tiezzi, 2018. "What Can We Learn about Smoking from 150 Years of Italian Data?," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(4), pages 695-717, December.
    10. Young, Jeffrey S. & Binkley, James K., 2020. "Low Income and Access to Healthy Food: The Case of Milk," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304539, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Income; Food Choice; Smoking;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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