Economics & Human Biology最新文献

The relationship between poverty and mental health is complex. Conditional cash transfers are seen as an important policy tool in reducing poverty and fostering social protection. Evidence on the impact of cash transfers on mental health is mixed. In this study, we assess the causal impact of Egypt’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) programme Takaful on the main recipients’ mental health. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that receiving the Takaful CCT does not have a significant impact on the anxiety levels of mothers in our sample. In addition, we do not find supporting evidence that the programme has heterogeneous impacts on anxiety levels. We discuss possible explanations behind these null results.

This study explores the relationship between Recreational Marijuana Laws (RMLs) and intimate partner violence (IPV). While marijuana is often considered harmless, the existing medical literature reveals both positive and negative impacts of its active ingredient on brain function. Utilizing a difference-in-difference methodology spanning 2006–2016 across 39 states, we find that RMLs produce a 20 percent increase in IPV incidents per 100,000 individuals, which appears to be mediated through mental health issues and binge drinking. These findings highlight the likely need for preventive and proactive policies to address the complex interplay of marijuana, RMLs, and IPV.

Background

Excess body weight has been recognised as an important factor in influencing labour market outcomes. Several hypotheses explain the causal effect of excess body weight on employment outcomes, including productivity, labour supply, and discrimination. In this review, we provide a systematic synthesis of the evidence on the causal impact of excess body weight on labour market outcomes worldwide.

Methods

We searched Econ Lit, and Web of Science databases for relevant studies published from 1st Jan 2010–20 th Jan 2023. Studies were included if they were either longitudinal analysis, pooled cross-sectional or cross-sectional studies if they used instrumental variable methodology based on Mendelian Randomisation. Only studies with measures of body weight and employment outcomes were included.

Results

The number of potentially relevant studies constituted 4321 hits. A total of 59 studies met the inclusion criteria and were qualitatively reviewed by the authors. Most of the included studies were conducted in the USA (N=18), followed by the UK (N=9), Germany (N=6), Finland (N=4), and non-EU countries (N=22). Evidence from the included studies suggests that the effect of excess weight differs by gender, ethnicity, country, and time period. White women with excess weight in the USA, the UK, Germany, Canada, and in the EU (multi-country analyses) are less likely to be employed, and when employed they face lower wages compared to normal weight counterparts. For men there is no effect of excess weight on employment outcomes or the magnitude of the effect is much smaller or even positive in some cases.

Conclusions

This review has shown that despite ample research on the relationship between excess weight and employment status and wages, robust causal evidence of the effects of excess weight on employment outcomes remains scarce and relies significantly on strong statistical and theoretical assumptions. Further research into these relationships outside of USA and Western Europe context is needed.

This study uses data from the 1987–2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and state-level employment rates from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics to estimate the association between macroeconomic conditions and cigarette smoking. Our finding suggests a positive association, which constantly declined with time after the 2001 recession. We find that a one percentage point increase in the employment rate is associated with a 1.4% higher likelihood of smoking cigarettes in the overall sample but declined to 0.4% among cohorts surveyed from 2011 to 2022. We also find strong positive and heterogeneous associations among sociodemographic groups, except among Blacks and persons aged 65 years and older, among whom there is no association; however, the positive associations consistently decreased among these sociodemographic groups. Consequently, the strong positive association disappeared in several sociodemographic groups in cohorts surveyed over the last decade.

The paper explores the relationship between the Covid-19 pandemic, subjective wellbeing and social capital in the UK. I exploit the pandemic as a quasi-natural experiment of an exogenously induced reduction of social capital as an explanation of the frequently documented reduction in wellbeing during the pandemic period. Differently from the literature, results show that after the onset of the pandemic - when the imposition of restrictions to social interactions occurred - both mental health and life satisfaction substantially decreased, and this decrease was larger for the people who reported having higher pre-pandemic social capital. Results also show however that their wellbeing decrease was not high enough to fully overturn the wellbeing gap usually in their favour. This suggests that the positive effects of social capital for wellbeing are via at least two pathways: in-person social interactions and via the value of having social networks. These results contribute to the literature on the relationship between social capital and wellbeing, as well as the one on the effects of the pandemic for mental health and life satisfaction. Policy implications include investing in social capital to increase overall populations’ wellbeing; and, during epidemiological crises, facilitating online psychological support to hamper the negative effects of social isolation, and campaigning to encourage people to keep as much as possible in touch with loved ones and their communities via online social networks and online events to prevent a further degradation of the quantity and quality of social interactions.

Standard measures of bodyweight (overweight and obese, for example) fail to reflect differences across populations and technological progress over time. This paper builds on the pioneering work of Hans Waaler (1984) and Robert Fogel (1994) to empirically estimate how the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and longevity varies across high-, middle-, and low-income countries. Importantly, we show that these differences are so profound that the share of national populations above mortality-minimizing bodyweight is not clearly greater in countries with higher overweight and obesity rates (as traditionally defined)–and in fact, relative to current standards, a larger share of low-income countries’ populations can be unhealthily heavy.

Dominance is usually viewed as a positive male attribute, but this is not typically the case for women. Using a novel dataset of student evaluations of teaching in a school of Business and Economics of a selective university, we construct the face width-to-height ratio (fWHR) as a proxy for perceived dominance to assess whether individuals with a higher ratio obtain better evaluations. Our results show that a higher fWHR is associated with a better evaluation for male faculty, while the opposite is the case for female faculty. These results are not due to differences in teachers’ quality or beauty. In terms of magnitude, the effect of the fWHR is much larger for female professors. To the extent that fWHR is a good proxy of perceived dominance, it appears that conformity to traditional gender norms pays off for both men and women. However, the cost of challenging these norms is much larger for women than for men.

We investigate a historical experience to measure the long-term effect of malaria on lifespan among infected survivors and identify a factor that mitigates malaria’s effect. Using a sample of Union Army veterans born during the mid-19th century and their lifetime records, we show that exposure to high risk of malaria at birth or in early life substantially shortened their lifespan. The legacy of exposure to malaria is robust while controlling for lifetime socioeconomic and health conditions, fixed effects, and considering selection bias. Additionally, we include the US Colored Troops sample of black veterans to analyze racial differences in the effect of malaria exposure on lifespan. Exposure to malaria did not lead to a shorter lifespan among black veterans. Evidence suggests that genetic immunity to malaria in black veterans might contribute this heterogeneity.

Left-digit bias is a cognitive bias wherein individuals assess the magnitude of numbers by emphasizing the leftmost digit. For instance, people often perceive the difference between $9.99 and $10.00 larger than that between $10.00 and $10.01, given the distinct left digits in the former two numbers. This study associates self-reported height with this cognitive bias. Taller stature is frequently associated with desirable attributes such as higher earnings and leadership positions; individuals may aspire to be taller and, consequently, report a height greater than their actual measurement. We posit that this inclination is more pronounced when combined with left-digit bias. In other words, individuals whose actual height ends in nine, such as 169 cm, are more likely to report their height as 170 cm than individuals with an actual height of 170 cm who report it as 171 cm. To conduct this analysis, we used data from an annual health survey of adolescents in grades 7–12. Our findings indicate that male adolescents exhibit a left-digit bias in reporting their height, whereas female adolescents do not. We contribute to the literature by providing new evidence of left-digit bias.

This paper examines the long-standing and severe public health crisis, the opioid epidemic in the United States, which has been worsening since the mid-1990s. In contrast to previous research, it investigates the broader impacts of this epidemic, particularly on family members and healthcare systems. Using a comprehensive dataset spanning from 1998 to 2010, the study analyzes opioid use at the three-digit ZIP code level, utilizing data from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and individual-level data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) in a two-way fixed effect model. The findings reveal significant negative effects on family caregivers, notably adult children, due to the opioid epidemic. Additionally, opioid exposure is associated with increased healthcare utilization, including home health care and hospital use. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the multifaceted consequences of the opioid epidemic.