Unemployment and Health Behaviors Over the Business Cycle: a Longitudinal View

No 20748, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We examine the first-order internal effects of unemployment on a range of health behaviors during the most recent recession using longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79). Consistent with prior studies based on cross-sectional data, we find that becoming unemployed is associated with a small increase in leisure-time exercise and in body weight, a moderate decrease in smoking, and a substantial decline in total physical activity. We also find that unemployment is associated with a decline in purchases of fast food. Together, these results imply that both energy consumption and expenditure decline in the U.S. during recessions, the net result being a slight increase in body weight. There is generally considerable heterogeneity in these effects across specific health behaviors, across the intensive and extensive margins, across the outcome distribution, and across gender.

JEL-codes: E32 I12 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-mac
Note: EFG EH LS
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Published as Gregory Colman & Dhaval Dave, 2018. "Unemployment and Health Behaviors over the Business Cycle: A Longitudinal View," Southern Economic Journal, vol 85(1), pages 93-120.

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Journal Article: Unemployment and Health Behaviors over the Business Cycle: A Longitudinal View (2018)
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