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Socioeconomic Status, Health and Lifestyle

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Author Info
Paul Contoyannis and Andrea M Jones

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Abstract

The role of lifestyle in mediating the relationship between socio-economic characteristics and and health has been discussed extensively in the epidemiological and economic literatures. Previous analyses have not considered a formal framework incorporating unobservable heterogeneity. In this paper we develop a simple economic model in which health is determined (partially) by lifestyle, which depends on preferences, budget and time constraints and unobservable characteristics. We estimate a recursive empirical specification consisting of a health production function and reduced forms for the lifestyle equations using Maximum Simulated Likelihood for a multivariate probit model with discrete indicators of lifestyle choices and self-assessed health (SAH) on British panel data from the 1984 and 1991 Health and Lifestyle Survey. We find that prudent drinking and not smoking in 1984 have dramatic positive effects on the probability of reporting excellent or good SAH in 1991. The failure of epidemiological analyses to account for unobserved heterogeneity can explain their low estimates of the relevance of lifestyle in the socio-economic status-health relationship. Accounting for unobserved heterogeneity also leads us to conclude that indicators for sleep, exercise and breakfast in 1984 are unimportant for SAH in 1991.

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Paper provided by Department of Economics, University of York in its series Discussion Papers with number 01/19.

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Handle: RePEc:yor:yorken:01/19

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Related research
Keywords: Determinants of health lifestyles simulation-based inference panel data.

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
C0 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - General

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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  5. Kenkel, D.S., 1989. "Should You Eat Breakfast? Estimates From Health Production Functions," Papers 9-90-8, Pennsylvania State - Department of Economics.
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  7. Kemna, Harrie J. M. I., 1987. "Working conditions and the relationship between schooling and health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 189-210, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Hajivassiliou, Vassilis & McFadden, Daniel & Ruud, Paul, 1996. "Simulation of multivariate normal rectangle probabilities and their derivatives theoretical and computational results," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1-2), pages 85-134. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Blaylock, J R & Blisard, W N, 1992. "Self-Evaluated Health Status and Smoking Behaviour," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 429-35, April.
  10. Ehrlich, Isaac & Chuma, Hiroyuki, 1990. "A Model of the Demand for Longevity and the Value of Life Extension," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(4), pages 761-82, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Borsch-Supan, Axel & Hajivassiliou, Vassilis A., 1993. "Smooth unbiased multivariate probability simulators for maximum likelihood estimation of limited dependent variable models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 347-368, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Andrew E. Clark & Fabrice Etilé, 2005. "Don’t Give Up On Me Baby: Spousal Correlation in Smoking Behaviour," IZA Discussion Papers 1692, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Paul Contoyannis & Andrew M. Jones & Nigel Rice, 2004. "The dynamics of health in the British Household Panel Survey," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(4), pages 473-503. [Downloadable!]
  3. Unto Häkkinen & Marjo-Riitta Järvelin & Gunnar Rosenqvist & Jaana Laitinen, 2006. "Health, schooling and lifestyle among young adults in Finland," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(11), pages 1201-1216. [Downloadable!]
  4. Silvia Balia & Andrew M. Jones, 2004. "Mortality, Lifestyle and Socio-Economic Status," Working Paper CRENoS 200416, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. David Cantarero & Marta Pascual, 2005. "Socio-Economic Status And Health: Evidence From The Echp," Economics Bulletin, Economics Bulletin, vol. 9(9), pages 1-17. [Downloadable!]
  6. Nilsson, William, 2006. "Socioeconomic Status and Sickness Absence - What do twins tell us about causality?," UmeÃ¥ Economic Studies 670, Umeå University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  7. Cristina Hernandez-Quevedo & Andrew M Jones & Nigel Rice, . "Reporting Bias and Heterogeneity in Self-Assessed Health. Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey," Discussion Papers 04/18, Department of Economics, University of York. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Cinzia Di Novi, 2007. "An Economic Evaluation of Life-Style and Air-pollution-related Damages: Results from the BRFSS," JEPS Working Papers 07-001, JEPS. [Downloadable!]
  9. Qiu, Tian, 2007. "The Adjusted Measure of Body Mass Index and its Impact on Health," MPRA Paper 6270, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  10. Sergio Destefanis & Vania Sena, 2006. "Health, Capabilities and Functionings: An Empirical Analysis for the UK," CSEF Working Papers 151, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Salerno, Italy. [Downloadable!]
  11. Florian Heiss & Axel Börsch-Supan & Michael Hurd & David Wise, 2007. "Pathways to Disability: Predicting Health Trajectories," MEA discussion paper series 07131, Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging (MEA), University of Mannheim. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  12. Silvia Balia, 2005. "Health and Economic Behaviour: a Critical Survey of the Literature," Working Paper CRENoS 200505, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia. [Downloadable!]
  13. David Cantarero Prieto & Marta Pascual Saez, . "Decentralisation and health care outcomes: An empirical analysis within the European Union," Studies on the Spanish Economy 220, FEDEA. [Downloadable!]
  14. Di Novi, Cinzia, 2008. "Adverse selection in the U.S. health insurance markets: Evidence from the MEPS," P.O.L.I.S. department's Working Papers 103, Department of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS. [Downloadable!]
  15. David Cantarero & Marta Pascual, 2005. "Regional Differences In Health In Spain - An Empirical Analysis," ERSA conference papers ersa05p551, European Regional Science Association. [Downloadable!]
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