Family Health Behaviors

TY - JOUR

T1 - Family Health Behaviors

AU - Fadlon, Itzik

AU - Nielsen, Torben Heien

PY - 2019/9/1

Y1 - 2019/9/1

N2 - We study how health behaviors are shaped through family spillovers. We leverage administrative data to identify the effects of health shocks on family members' consumption of preventive care and health-related behaviors, constructing counterfactuals for affected households using households that experience the same shock but a few years in the future. Spouses and adult children immediately improve their health behaviors and their responses are both significant and persistent. These spillovers are far-reaching as they cascade even to coworkers. While some responses are consistent with learning information about one's own health, the evidence points to salience as a major operative explanation.

AB - We study how health behaviors are shaped through family spillovers. We leverage administrative data to identify the effects of health shocks on family members' consumption of preventive care and health-related behaviors, constructing counterfactuals for affected households using households that experience the same shock but a few years in the future. Spouses and adult children immediately improve their health behaviors and their responses are both significant and persistent. These spillovers are far-reaching as they cascade even to coworkers. While some responses are consistent with learning information about one's own health, the evidence points to salience as a major operative explanation.

UR - http://www.mendeley.com/research/family-health-behaviors

U2 - 10.1257/aer.20171993

DO - 10.1257/aer.20171993

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0002-8282

VL - 109

SP - 3162

EP - 3191

JO - American Economic Review

JF - American Economic Review

IS - 9

ER -