Pace University & National Bureau of Economic Research, Department of Economics, 41 Park Row, New York, NY 10038, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2013 Sep;93:11-20. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.05.032. Epub 2013 Jun 13.
Shifts in time and income constraints over economic expansions and contractions would be expected to affect individuals' behaviors. We explore the impact of the business cycle on individuals' exercise, time use, and total physical exertion, utilizing information on 112,000 individual records from the 2003-2010 American Time Use Surveys. In doing so, we test a key causal link that has been hypothesized in the relation between unemployment and health, but not heretofore assessed. Using more precise measures of exercise (and other activities) than previous studies, we find that as work-time decreases during a recession, recreational exercise, TV-watching, sleeping, childcare, and housework increase. This, however, does not compensate for the decrease in work-related exertion due to job-loss, and total physical exertion declines. These effects are strongest among low-educated men, which is validating given that employment in the Great Recession has declined most within manufacturing, mining, and construction. We also find evidence of intra-household spillover effects, wherein individuals respond to shifts in spousal employment conditional on their own labor supply. The decrease in total physical activity during recessions is especially problematic for vulnerable populations concentrated in boom-and-bust industries, and may have longer-term effects on obesity and related health outcomes.
经济扩张和收缩期间的时间和收入限制的转变预计会影响个人的行为。我们利用来自 2003-2010 年美国时间使用调查的 112000 个个体记录的信息，探讨了经济周期对个人锻炼、时间利用和总体力消耗的影响。这样，我们就测试了一个在失业与健康之间的关系中被假设但尚未评估的关键因果联系。与以往的研究相比，我们使用了更精确的锻炼（和其他活动）测量方法，发现随着经济衰退期间工作时间的减少，娱乐性锻炼、看电视、睡觉、照顾孩子和家务劳动都会增加。然而，这并不能弥补因失业而减少的与工作相关的体力消耗，因此总体力消耗下降。这些影响在受教育程度较低的男性中最为强烈，这是合理的，因为在大衰退期间，制造业、采矿业和建筑业的就业岗位减少最多。我们还发现了家庭内溢出效应的证据，即个人根据自己的劳动力供应对配偶就业的变化做出反应。在经济衰退期间，总体力活动的减少对集中在繁荣-萧条行业的弱势群体尤其成问题，并且可能对肥胖和相关健康结果产生长期影响。
