Macroeconomic Conditions, Mortality and Health: Evidence from France
- Presenter:
Chair: Thomas C. Buchmueller; Discussant: Sara Markowitz Tue June 6, 2006 8:00-9:30 Room 326
In contrast to the conventional belief that health deteriorates during economic downturns, a growing body of research suggests that mortality and morbidity decline when the economy temporarily weakens. Most studies in this area use data from the U.S. As a result, it is not clear whether this relationship holds in other countries or is an artifact of the unique features of the U.S. health care system and social safety net. This paper extends the literature by using aggregate and individual-level data from France to investigate the relationship between macroeconomic conditions and health outcomes. The aggregate analysis is based on data on mortality and unemployment rates from each of France’s 95 départementes for the period 1982 to 2004. In addition to examining the relationship between overall mortality and unemployment, we conduct separate analyses by source of mortality. The individual-level data come from the Enquête sur la Santé et la Protection Sociale (ESPS), a survey of the French population that has been conducted biennially since 1988. The ESPS provides detailed information on health status, health behaviors and the utilization of medical care. We relate several health outcomes to local economic conditions, controlling for individual demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, general time trends and area fixed effects.
