Working Paper: NBER ID: w29898
Authors: Hunghao Chang; Chad Meyerhoefer
Abstract: Farmers have higher rates of disability and illness than the general population and more volatile incomes due to frequent crop and livestock losses from extreme weather events. This raises concerns that sudden, weather-related drops in farm income could reduce access to health care for an already vulnerable population. We estimate the sensitivity of health care use to the loss in farm income brought about by natural disasters in Taiwan. To account for endogenous exposure to disaster risks, we estimate an instrumental variables model and find that farm income elasticities of demand for outpatient care and prescriptions range from 0.11 to 0.32. Reductions in health care use may be due, in part, to changes in time allocations within farm households.
Keywords: health care expenditure; farm income loss; natural disasters; income elasticity; Taiwan
JEL Codes: I1; Q12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Natural disasters (H84) | Farm income loss (Q12) |
| Farm income loss (Q12) | Health care expenditure (H51) |
| Natural disasters (H84) | Health care expenditure (H51) |
| Farm income loss (Q12) | Health care utilization (I11) |
| Farm income loss (Q12) | Financial constraints (D10) |
| Farm income loss (Q12) | Changes in time allocations (J29) |