Volume 38, Number 1 (Winter) 2003
Wu, Stephen. 2003. "The Effects pf Health Events on the Economic Status of Married Couples." Journal of Human Resources 38(1):219-230.
This paper uses measures of exogenous health "shocks" to identify the different channels through which changes in health conditions affect income, wealth, and consumption behavior. The results indicate that serious health conditions have strong effects on household wealth, but that the effects for women are larger and more significant than the effects for men. The source of the asymmetry arises from the fact that general living expenses increase when wives become seriously ill, while for husbands, health shocks do not affect these expenditures.
Stephen Wu is an assistant professor of economics at Hamilton College. The author would like to thank Anne Case, Angus Deaton, Jeffrey Kling, Helen Levy, Harvey Rosen, seminar participants at Hamilton College and Princeton University, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments and suggestions. The data used in this article can be obtained August 2003 through July 2006 from Stephen Wu, Department of Economics, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY 13323.
© 2003 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X