THE EFFECTS OF YOUNG ADULT‐DEPENDENT COVERAGE AND CONTRACEPTION MANDATES ON YOUNG WOMEN

This research investigates two features of the Affordable Care Act that especially affect young adults, the young adult‐dependent coverage (YAD) mandate and the requirement to cover contraception (CM). Both mandates were first enacted at the state level but have been studied only in isolation. We estimate a wide range of models allowing these mandates to have joint effects on insurance coverage, health‐care access, health outcomes and fertility. We provide new evidence that helps settle the mixed findings from past state‐level YAD and CM research and suggests the two mandates may combine to improve the well‐being of young adults. (JEL I18, I12, H75)     

Broke,Ill, and Obese: Is There an Effect of Household Debt on Health?

We analyze the association between household indebtedness and different health outcomes using data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel from 1999 to 2009. We control for unobserved heterogeneity by applying fixed‐effects methods and furthermore use a subsample of constantly employed individuals plus lagged debt variables to reduce problems of reverse causality. We apply different measures of household indebtedness, such as the percentage shares of household income spent on consumer credit and home loan repayments (which indicate the severity of household indebtedness) and a binary variable of relative overindebtedness (which indicates a precarious debt situation). We find all debt measures to be strongly correlated with health satisfaction, mental health, and obesity. This relationship vanishes for obesity after controlling for unobserved heterogeneity while it stays significant with respect to worse physical and mental health.     

HAPPY PEOPLE ARE LESS LIKELY TO BE UNEMPLOYED: PSYCHOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FROM PANEL DATA

There is a large literature showing that unemployment reduces people's well‐being. Yet little is known about the reverse possibility, namely that well‐being itself may influence unemployment propensity. Understanding the potentials of human well‐being in relation to unemployment is important as many developed countries are currently facing high unemployment rates. As well‐being is likely to be endogenous, we use British panel data and implement Lewbel's novel empirical approach for identification. We show that higher well‐being implies a negative causal effect on the probability of being unemployed. The result holds for two very different well‐being measures: life satisfaction and a 12‐item scale of mental health. As such, it provides new empirical evidence on the causal link between well‐being and unemployment propensity. (JEL D03, I31)     

Does Labor Market Status Influence Self-Assessed Health?

This study examines whether individuals’ self-assessed health is related to their previous standing in the labor market and their self-assessed health at that time. We find that, once self-assessed health in the past is controlled for, none of the specified reasons behind individuals’ labor market status at that time, including the inability to find work, have a statistically significant adverse impact on current assessment of physical or mental health. We do find, however, that women obtaining a job in the past period will currently perceive that their physical health is improved, and that previously unemployed men with a job to return to in the current period also experienced perceptions of better health in the current period. We present evidence that these perceptions share a common factor with other health indicators such as sick days and quasi-objective measures of physical and mental health.     

Health Selection and the Effect of Smoking on Mortality

We show that individuals who are in poorer health, independently from smoking, are more likely to start smoking and to smoke more cigarettes than those with better non‐smoking‐related health. We present evidence of selection, relying on extensive data on morbidity and mortality. We show that health‐based selection into smoking has increased over the last 50 years with knowledge of its health effects. We show that the effect of smoking on mortality is greater for more highly educated individuals and for individuals in good non‐smoking‐related health.     

Unexpected windfalls,education, and mental health: evidence from lottery winners in Germany

This paper investigates the causal impact of large unexpected windfalls on individual mental health, physical health, as well as health behaviors. I use a large individual-level panel data set of lottery winners from Germany between the years 2000 and 2011 and observe lottery winners before and after winning a large lottery prize. Mental health declines immediately after winning a large lottery prize for individuals with low education and low levels of financial literacy. While these individuals report being happier after winning the lottery, evidence from commonly used SF-12 measures of mental health indicates that winners with low education experience increased role limitations due to emotional problems, are more anxious, and have less energy after their win. The impact on various measures of mental health is highly robust, statistically significant, economically significant, and persists for up to two years after the win. Unexpected windfalls have no impact on the mental health of individuals with high education or high financial literacy. Winning the lottery has no impact on individuals’ health behaviors such as smoking or alcohol consumption, and it has no impact on doctor visits, hospital stays, or illness-related work absences regardless of education level.     

城市农民工心理健康及群体差异调查研究——以浙江省温州市为例

运用SCL-90量表对温州市部分农民工进行调查,结果发现城市农民工心理健康水平显著低于全国常模,不同性别、婚姻、年龄、岗位和文化程度的城市农民工的心理健康状况各有差异。     

论和谐社会建设与公民心理健康

和谐社会建设与心理健康之间有着密不可分的关系,社会和谐是公民的根本保证,而公民的心理健康水平又反过来影响社会的和谐程度,二者相互渗透,相互影响,相互制约,相互促进。加强与改进公民心理健康工作,大幅度的提高公民的心理健康水平,是社会主义和谐社会建设的重要内容。     

Regional variations in exporters’ productivity premium: Theory and evidence

The international trade literature confirms that the average productivity of exporters is higher than that of nonexporters, while economic geography studies establish that urban firms tend to be more productive than rural ones. By introducing region‐specific transportation costs in a Melitz‐type heterogeneous‐firm trade model, the theory predicts that the minimum threshold productivity level for export is higher but that for survival by serving the local market is lower in the periphery region than in the core. Using Japanese plant‐level panel data, we find evidence supporting the theoretical prediction that exporters in the peripheral regions, especially those distant from the core, have large productivity premiums.     

Adult mortality in Russia

This paper studies the determinants of Russian adult mortality controlling for both individual and household heterogeneity. We employ survival analysis and utilize 12 rounds of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey spanning a 14‐year period. Although confirming the crucial role of excessive alcohol consumption in shaping adult mortality risks in Russia, the results are original in several other respects. We find empirical support for the importance of relative status measured in non‐income terms in shaping mortality hazards. We find evidence of the influence of labour market behaviour, and sectoral and occupational mobility in particular, on longevity. The detrimental role of smoking to health is found to be comparable with the role of excess alcohol consumption, which is novel in the Russian context where the influence of smoking is typically downplayed in comparison with alcoholism. Finally, we find no micro evidence in support of the political economy view based on a positive correlation between low alcohol prices and high mortality rates found in regional‐level data.     

循证心理健康教育视角下的心理健康教育

循证心理健康教育是指心理健康教育者在意识到教育对象的特征、文化与偏好的情况下,将最佳研究证据与自己的教育技能整合起来所进行的心理健康教育。它属于当今循证实践运动的一部分,是肇始于循证医学,在循证心理治疗的基础上发展起来的一种心理健康教育新取向。循证心理健康教育的出现,为心理健康教育缩短研究与实践的距离、提高教育的效果、平衡研究者、教育者及教育对象三方的利益、增强心理健康教育的＂可操作性＂等提供了一条可供选择的途径。     

Economic Aspects of Loneliness in Australia

We highlight the problem of loneliness, and argue that it is not only a public health issue but also an economic problem. We provide a brief review of findings from the key literature on the associations between loneliness, mental and physical health, and healthcare costs; and then present some evidence on its trends, the extent of socioeconomic inequalities and its links with health and healthcare usage, in Australia. We hope to encourage further economics research on loneliness, and related issues of social isolation and poor social support, to aid the design of policies and interventions to reduce loneliness.     

THE IMPACT OF INSURANCE SUBSIDIES ON SELF‐EMPLOYMENT: DO STATE NON‐GROUP HEALTH INSURANCE REGULATIONS MATTER?

This paper tests whether the effect of tax‐based subsidies for self‐employed health insurance on the level of self‐employment differs with the type of non‐group insurance regulatory regime at the state level. Using a panel of tax returns from 1999 to 2004, we estimate fixed effects instrumental variable regressions for the probability of being self‐employed, allowing the effect of the after‐tax price of self‐employed health insurance to differ by regulatory regime. Our results suggest that states with community rating and guaranteed issue regulations had significantly smaller increases in the fraction of taxpayers reporting some amount of self‐employment income as a result of a decrease in the after‐tax price of self‐employed health insurance. However, there is suggestive evidence that heavily regulated states experienced a larger increase in exclusive self‐employment, particularly among older taxpayers. (JEL J24, H24, I18)     

Does new health information affect health behaviour? The effect of health events on smoking cessation

This article empirically assesses the role of new health information in the decision to quit smoking. Using individual level data from the Swiss Household Panel, health information is proxied by three different types of health events: physical health problems, mental disorders, and accidents. Exploiting retrospectively reported information on smoking behaviour, smoking cessation is modelled using a discrete time hazard model that also accounts for estimation problems arising from almost quasi-complete separation in the data. The empirical results yield robust evidence that general health problems increase the probability of instantaneous smoking cessation. Differentiating between the type of health event reveals that the overall effect is mainly driven by physical health events.     

绿地之于人体健康的功效与机理 ——绿色医学的提案

绿地之于人的健康在生理、心理、社会3个维度均存在一定的有益功效。总结绿地发挥健康功效的作用机理,包括满足人类自然基本属性、改善人居环境条件、刺激五感、提供活动支持、激发联想、提供树木的能量和气场6个方面。以此为基础,提出绿色医学的概念和设想,探索一条维持人们、特别是城市居民身心健康的辅助途径,并为提升绿地的健康卫生功能提供依据。     

It's an ill wind: The effect of fine particulate air pollution on respiratory hospitalizations

While a growing literature in economics has established the harmful health effects of longstanding criteria air pollutants such as ozone and carbon monoxide, fine particulate air pollution is relatively understudied. This paper provides evidence on the harmful effects of fine particulate pollution for Ontario, where municipalities enjoy particulate levels well below US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards and predominantly below Canada‐wide standards. Results provide strong evidence for the detrimental effect of fine particulate pollution for the respiratory health of children, with a one standard deviation change in particulate pollution, leading to a 4% increase in respiratory admissions. While these results inform the stringency of current pollution standards, they also highlight the importance of an international approach to air quality. For instance, the paper also shows that particulate levels in Ontario municipalities are strongly influenced by southerly winds from US jurisdictions, which adhere to more lenient EPA standards.     

Price Adjustment to Exchange Rates and Forward‐looking Exporters: Evidence from USA–China Trade

This paper shows that the pricing behavior of exporting firms exhibits a “forward‐looking” nature with sticky prices. As a result, the expectations of future exchange rates affect current prices at both the product level and firm level. We find evidence by employing both highly disaggregated Harmonized System (HS) 10‐digit product‐level import data of the USA and firm–product level customs data on China's exports to the USA. These findings provide evidence for a previously unexplored micro‐level forward‐looking nature of trade price adjustment as response to future exchange rates, and suggest a potentially important factor in helping explain incomplete exchange rate pass‐through.     

A STOCHASTIC DYNAMIC MODEL OF THE MENTAL HEALTH OF CHILDREN*

We estimate the parameters of a dynamic multiperiod model where parents with one child periodically decide whether their child uses mental health services. In this model, parents receive utility from household consumption and from their child's mental health. Mental health services may improve the child's mental health, but may be costly in terms of reduced household consumption and direct disutility. We find that mental health services can slightly improve a child's mental health, but the use of services accounts for a small fraction of the improvement of the mental health of the children in our sample.     

Life Satisfaction and Longevity: Longitudinal Evidence from the German Socio‐Economic Panel

We investigate the relationship between life satisfaction and mortality using the German Socio‐Economic Panel, which allows us to follow around 15,000 people for more than two decades. Seventeen per cent of the respondents surveyed in 1984 died between 1984 and 2007. After controlling for initial health conditions, we find that people's life satisfaction at the beginning of the survey is deeply linked to their life expectancy: a ten per cent increase in life satisfaction is connected to a four per cent decline in the probability of death in the period studied. The relationship between life satisfaction and mortality is stronger for the married and the men but life satisfaction does not matter for the women. We find some suggestive evidence that links between life satisfaction and mortality could be operating via accidents and mental health. Finally, we show that the life satisfaction measured in 1984 extends to the rest of life: people who were happier in 1984 more frequently experienced high levels of happiness in the rest of their lives. These results suggest that life satisfaction is a powerful risk‐factor for later mortality and is more predictive of mortality than a host of other variables.