Working Paper: NBER ID: w20748
Authors: Gregory Colman; Dhaval Dave
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.
Keywords: unemployment; health behaviors; Great Recession; longitudinal data; physical activity
JEL Codes: E32; I12; J22
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Unemployment (J64) | leisure-time exercise (J22) |
| Unemployment (J64) | body weight (I14) |
| Unemployment (J64) | smoking (L66) |
| Unemployment (J64) | total physical activity (E63) |
| Unemployment (J64) | fast food purchases (L81) |
| Unemployment (J64) | energy consumption (Q41) |
| Unemployment (J64) | energy expenditure (E20) |
| Unemployment (J64) | health behaviors (I12) |