恋爱状况对健康的影响与动态健康及持久关系

The effect of relationship status on health with dynamic health and persistent relationships.

作者信息

Kohn Jennifer L, Averett Susan L

机构信息

Department of Economics and Business Studies, Drew University, 301 Lewis House, Madison, NJ 07940, United States.

Department of Economics, Lafayette College, Easton, PA 18042, United States.

出版信息

J Health Econ. 2014 Jul;36:69-83. doi: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2014.03.010. Epub 2014 Apr 12.

DOI:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2014.03.010

PMID:24769050

Abstract

The dynamic evolution of health and persistent relationship status pose econometric challenges to disentangling the causal effect of relationships on health from the selection effect of health on relationship choice. Using a new econometric strategy we find that marriage is not universally better for health. Rather, cohabitation benefits the health of men and women over 45, being never married is no worse for health, and only divorce marginally harms the health of younger men. We find strong evidence that unobservable health-related factors can confound estimates. Our method can be applied to other research questions with dynamic dependent and multivariate endogenous variables.

摘要

健康状况的动态演变以及持久的恋爱关系状态给计量经济学带来了挑战，难以从健康对恋爱关系选择的选择效应中分离出恋爱关系对健康的因果效应。运用一种新的计量经济学策略，我们发现婚姻对健康并非普遍更有益。相反，同居对45岁以上的男性和女性的健康有益，未婚对健康并无更差影响，只有离婚对年轻男性的健康有轻微损害。我们发现有力证据表明，不可观测的健康相关因素会混淆估计结果。我们的方法可应用于其他具有动态相关和多变量内生变量的研究问题。