Does unemployment lead to a less healthy lifestyle?

Publication Type
Journal contribution
Authors
Kaiser, M./Bauer, J.M./Sousa-Poza, A.
Year of publication
2017
Published in
Applied Economics Letters
Band/Volume
24(12)/
DOI
10.1080/13504851.2016.1231888
Page (from - to)
815-819
Abstract

In this article, we use 22 years of data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and information on plant closures to investigate the effects of unemployment on four indicators of unhealthy lifestyles: diet, alcohol consumption, smoking and (a lack of) physical activity. In contrast to much of the existing literature, which unlike our analysis is unable to assess causality, our results provide little evidence that unemployment gives rise to unhealthy lifestyles.

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