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Health and Wellbeing Spillovers of a Partner’s Cancer Diagnosis

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  • Viola Angelini
  • Joan Costa-Font
  • Joan Costa-i-Font

Abstract

Major health shocks can have far-reaching consequences on the welfare of an individual’s support and emotional network. This paper investigates both long-term and short-term spillovers of a major non-communicable health shock, namely a cancer diagnosis (CD), on the health and well-being of an individual’s partner. We rely on data from a longitudinal sample of individuals over fifty from 19 European countries. Our estimates provide economically relevant evidence of the spillovers of a CD on the partner’s mental health and well-being. We document a negative association between a partner’s CD and several measures of well-being, which is not driven by changes in health behaviors and persists over time for some dimensions. These findings suggest that focusing on the individual economic impact of a CD is likely to underestimate its long-term welfare effects unless spillovers on the emotional support network are considered.

Suggested Citation

  • Viola Angelini & Joan Costa-Font & Joan Costa-i-Font, 2023. "Health and Wellbeing Spillovers of a Partner’s Cancer Diagnosis," CESifo Working Paper Series 10494, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10494
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    cancer; family spillovers; health behaviors; household well-being; employment; loneliness; welfare effects;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination

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