Economics And Human Biology[JOURNAL]
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200 papers
Gender differences in the duration of sick leave: Economics or biology?
Martín-Román ÁL, Moral A, Pinillos-Franco S
Econ Hum Biol · 2026 Feb · PMID 41610491 · Publisher ↗
This study addresses the gender gap in workplace sick leave duration, focusing on the underlying economic and biological factors that contribute to this disparity. Using a novel methodological approach, we combine the st...
This study addresses the gender gap in workplace sick leave duration, focusing on the underlying economic and biological factors that contribute to this disparity. Using a novel methodological approach, we combine the stochastic frontier technique with an Oaxaca-Blinder-type decomposition to separate sick leave into medically justified and "opportunistic" days. Our analysis, based on detailed administrative data of workplace accidents in Spain, reveals that men and women recover at different rates for the same injuries, with biological differences explaining the majority of the observed gender gap. Additionally, we identify that men tend to use more sick leave days for reasons unrelated to health recovery. The findings offer valuable insights for policymakers and employers, providing an empirical foundation for targeted policies that reduce gender-based discrimination in the workplace and ensure fairer resource allocation. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the gender gap in occupational health and offers implications for improving workplace equality.
Female heights and sexual dimorphism in Argentina: Data from inmates of a Buenos Aires prison, 1865-1952.
Salvatore RD
Econ Hum Biol · 2026 Feb · PMID 41581424 · Publisher ↗
This contribution examines new data on female heights extracted from records of a female prison near La Plata, Argentina. The data provides insights about the net-nutrition condition of lower-class women in Buenos Aires,...
This contribution examines new data on female heights extracted from records of a female prison near La Plata, Argentina. The data provides insights about the net-nutrition condition of lower-class women in Buenos Aires, Argentina's wealthiest province. This data shows a remarkably poor growth in female stature: 1.8 cm over eight decades (from the 1870s to the 1940s). Yet Buenos Aires female prisoners were the tallest among a group of twelve Latin American countries. Their heights were equivalent to the 30th to 40th percentile of contemporary female standards of heights. This suggests that these women were relatively well-fed and relatively healthy. Compared with the heights of male prisoners, female heights seemed to have followed a similar path; in the long run the stature sexual gap remained rather stable.
Telecare and elderly mortality: Evidence from Italian municipalities.
Matteucci N, Picchio M, Santolini R … +1 more , Tchounkeu RAY
Econ Hum Biol · 2026 Feb · PMID 41544299 · Publisher ↗
The growing ageing of the population in developed economies has necessitated the progressive use of advanced information and communication technologies for the home care of elderly individuals. The effect of these techno...
The growing ageing of the population in developed economies has necessitated the progressive use of advanced information and communication technologies for the home care of elderly individuals. The effect of these technologies on elderly health outcomes remains an open issue. This study analyzes the impact of telecare on the mortality rate of elderly people in Italy using data at the municipal level and a doubly robust difference-in-differences design. Our results show that telecare services significantly reduced the mortality rate of the elderly aged 65 and over by 1.7 individuals per 1000 inhabitants. This effect is sizeable, since it is a 4 % decrease in the elderly mortality rate relatively to the average elderly mortality rate in the treated municipalities. The effect was greater in municipalities with a large proportion of childless elderly people, suggesting that telecare may be particularly useful for the elderly who find it more difficult to rely on strong family ties. Moreover, it was larger in small municipalities, indicating that telecare may be more effective in areas where there is a greater need to compensate for a lower provision of traditional social and health care services.
Mental hospitalisation and its impact on mortality.
Bijwaard GE
Econ Hum Biol · 2026 Feb · PMID 41500016 · Publisher ↗
This paper investigates how severe mental problems (mental hospitalisation) affects mortality for males. We account for the selection into mental hospitalisation (both admittance and discharge) by using a correlated mult...
This paper investigates how severe mental problems (mental hospitalisation) affects mortality for males. We account for the selection into mental hospitalisation (both admittance and discharge) by using a correlated multistate model for the mental hospitalisation process and mortality. The empirical analyses, based on data for men from the Swedish Military Conscription Data linked to administrative Swedish registers, reveal that ignoring the endogeneity of the mental hospitalisation process would substantially overestimate the effect of being in a mental hospital on the mortality hazard and (slightly) underestimate the effect of hospital experience on mortality. We also investigate how the effect of mental hospitalisation changes by birth cohort and by education level. The empirical analyses show that the effect of mental hospitalisation increases over time and that high educated men are affected the most by mental hospitalisation. To investigate whether mental hospitalisation affects different causes of death differently we also estimate a timing-of-events model with cause-specific mortality rates, distinguishing five different causes of death. The model is an extension of the timing-of-events model. The empirical results reveal that not only suicide and death due to external causes are affected by mental hospitalisation but also death due to cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and death due to other natural causes.
The impact of prescription drug monitoring programs on functional health.
Cotet-Grecu AM, Zanzalari D
Econ Hum Biol · 2026 Feb · PMID 41494510 · Publisher ↗
In the United States, policy responses to the opioid epidemic shifted opioid prescribing patterns. Such changes may have far-reaching implications beyond opioid misuse, raising concerns of impaired access to effective pa...
In the United States, policy responses to the opioid epidemic shifted opioid prescribing patterns. Such changes may have far-reaching implications beyond opioid misuse, raising concerns of impaired access to effective pain management. Unlike previous studies that focus on opioid prescribing and overdoses, this paper uses a broad measure of quality-of-life to capture both the intended effects of PDMPs on individuals who abuse or misuse opioids and incidental effects on legitimate users affected by changes in their pain management regimen. We find that failure to account for the staggered adoption of must-access PDMPs underestimates the benefits of this policy. After accounting for differential trends by age group and the staggered adoption of PDMPs, we find suggestive evidence of improvements in functioning. These gains are larger among demographic categories known to have higher rates of prescription drug (Rx) prescribing: older individuals, and individuals without a college degree-and not among groups with higher rates of non-medical prescription drug use.
The effect of short videos on obesity: Evidence from China.
Chen C, Wang Q
Econ Hum Biol · 2026 Feb · PMID 41485325 · Publisher ↗
Obesity rates have surged in recent years, particularly in developing countries, yet key drivers remain inadequately understood. We identify short videos as a novel and significant determinant of obesity. We use China Fa...
Obesity rates have surged in recent years, particularly in developing countries, yet key drivers remain inadequately understood. We identify short videos as a novel and significant determinant of obesity. We use China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) microdata in China to examine the causal relationship between short videos and obesity by the fixed effect panel regression model. Our findings show that short videos increase BMI by 0.12 and the probability of obesity by 2.2 %, resulting in an additional CNY of 7.52 billion one year in healthcare costs nationwide. It can explain about 27 % of the growth in China's obese population from 2020 to 2022, suggesting that it has become a major new driver of obesity. Further analysis reveals that short videos are addictive, displacing time for physical exercise, and we find no evidence supporting their positive impact on exercise by information channel. Other potential mechanisms, including mental health, sleep quality, and health-related habits, are found to be insignificant. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that men, individuals with lower education levels, those aged over 35, and urban residents are more likely to experience negative effects from short video addiction. This study contributes to the literature by highlighting short video platforms as emerging digital determinants of obesity, providing new perspectives for health policy and digital media regulation.
Self-employment, health, and health care: When the going gets tough, the tough get going?
Garrouste C, Paraponaris A, Sirven N
Econ Hum Biol · 2026 Feb · PMID 41477945 · Publisher ↗
This study provides a life-course analysis of the relationship between self-employment, health, and health care use among individuals aged 50 and older in Europe. Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirem...
This study provides a life-course analysis of the relationship between self-employment, health, and health care use among individuals aged 50 and older in Europe. Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we apply first-difference and dynamic panel data models that go beyond standard approaches in mitigating endogeneity concerns. Our findings show that the self-employed enjoy better health at younger ages, consistent with a selection effect. In addition, they experience a steeper decline in physical health over time. We also document two distinct phases of health care use: during working life, the self-employed are more likely to be hospitalised, suggesting delayed care until acute needs arise; after retirement, the number of medical visits increases, consistent with a lower opportunity cost of care.
In the shadow of a pandemic: Informality and COVID-19 diffusion in Europe.
Alfano V
Econ Hum Biol · 2026 Feb · PMID 41455222 · Publisher ↗
This article investigates whether the shadow economy influenced the diffusion of COVID-19 during the first wave in Europe. Using a hybrid econometric model and data from 26 European countries, we test the hypothesis that...
This article investigates whether the shadow economy influenced the diffusion of COVID-19 during the first wave in Europe. Using a hybrid econometric model and data from 26 European countries, we test the hypothesis that larger informal sectors acted as amplifiers of contagion by weakening compliance with non-pharmaceutical interventions and limiting state enforcement capacity. The results confirm a strong and positive association between shadow economy size and new COVID-19 cases. Each additional 1 % of GDP in the shadow economy corresponds to approximately 0.17 more daily cases per million inhabitants, while an extra 1 % of workforce in the informal sector corresponds to approximately 0.26 more daily cases per million inhabitants. Taken together, the findings suggest that informality constitutes a structural vulnerability for pandemic management, though its impact is mediated by institutional and regional contexts. The broader implication is that the shadow economy can undermine containment policies, even in relatively high-capacity European settings. These results highlight that the costs of informality extend beyond fiscal inefficiency to public health risks, underscoring the importance of long-term strategies that integrate economic formalization, social protection, and institutional trust into pandemic preparedness.
Climate change and birth outcomes - Evidence from Brazil.
Feldens TK, de Oliveira VR
Econ Hum Biol · 2026 Feb · PMID 41443008 · Publisher ↗
BACKGROUND: Newborn health effects from climate change are a serious threat to the future generations. However, little is known about its estimates for Brazil, a country which still struggles with deep inequalities and p...
BACKGROUND: Newborn health effects from climate change are a serious threat to the future generations. However, little is known about its estimates for Brazil, a country which still struggles with deep inequalities and poverty. METHODS: We used a dataset of almost 45 million observations to ascertain whether there is any impact of both hotter temperatures and shifts from the historical averages on newborns' birth weights across Brazilian municipalities during the period of 2000-2020. RESULTS: According to our results, both additional hotter days and shifts from the established weather are capable of decreasing birthweight across our samples. Although positive shocks were more frequent, also cold shocks are damaging to perinatal health; and the third trimester was found the most sensitive to weather shocks. Results for precipitation, however, remain unclear. The estimates are especially higher for the population living in isolated and underserved areas. CONCLUSIONS: Our results imply that climate change effects have already arrived in Brazil. In a country that suffers from severe social problems, vulnerable populations should be protected, and coping mechanisms should be widespread to decrease the damaging risks of climatic exposure.
Corrigendum to "The impact of Long-term Care Insurance on household income inequality: Evidence from China" [Econ. Hum. Biol. 59 (2025) 101519].
Chi Y, Zhang Q
Econ Hum Biol · 2026 Feb · PMID 41372004 · Publisher ↗
Abstract loading — click title to view on PubMed.
Growing up in a growing economy. Reassessing changes in biological living standards in Portugal during the twentieth century.
Cardoso HFV, Murray NJ
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Dec · PMID 41344297 · Publisher ↗
This paper explores the assumptions about sample representativeness and provides a re-analysis of the data utilized by Cermeño and co-workers (2023a) to examine changes in the biological standards of living in Portugal o...
This paper explores the assumptions about sample representativeness and provides a re-analysis of the data utilized by Cermeño and co-workers (2023a) to examine changes in the biological standards of living in Portugal over the 20th century, from records of child height taken from the Hospital de São Roque (1945-2000) in Lisbon, Portugal. The authors suggest that the largest decline in the prevalence of stunting - and concomitantly, the greatest increase in biological standards of living or population well-being - occurred during the Estado Novo dictatorship, before the democratic transition of 1974. Our analysis relies on the original raw data and results, as well re-calculated prevalences of stunting, examination of heigh-for-age distributions, and it also relied on other growth studies for comparison and various historic documents and published sources to assess the representatives of the sample. The Hospital de São Roque data may not fully represent the population of Lisbon, or Portugal more broadly, suggesting some caution is needed when using them to examine changes in growth patterns over time. Results indicate that the most significant decline in stunting - reflecting the greatest improvement in the standard of living - occurred after, not before, the democratic transition of 1974.
Air pollution and health of working-age population: Evidence from thermal inversion.
You S, Chou SY
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Dec · PMID 41330123 · Publisher ↗
Despite the significant impact of air pollution on public health, its causal effects on a national scale have not been extensively studied. In this paper, we examine the impact of PM2.5 on adult health in the United Stat...
Despite the significant impact of air pollution on public health, its causal effects on a national scale have not been extensively studied. In this paper, we examine the impact of PM2.5 on adult health in the United States using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System for 2001-2012, focusing on a period of relatively low pollution levels. To address the endogeneity issue, we use the two-stage least squares regression with thermal inversion as an instrumental variable. Our findings provide evidence of the ongoing negative impact of air pollution on overall health. In particular, we find that a 1 µg/m increase in PM2.5 leads to an increase of 0.11 mentally unwell days and a 0.16-percentage-point rise in asthma incidence.
Measuring and testing vulnerability to food insecurity for prediction and targeting.
Letta M, Montalbano P, Morales Opazo C … +1 more , Petruccelli F
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Dec · PMID 41325648 · Publisher ↗
Taking advantage of the exogenous nature of the COVID-19 shock, we present an empirical test to assess the validity of theory-based methods for targeting household vulnerability to food insecurity. Specifically, we test...
Taking advantage of the exogenous nature of the COVID-19 shock, we present an empirical test to assess the validity of theory-based methods for targeting household vulnerability to food insecurity. Specifically, we test the performance of an applied measure of vulnerability to food insecurity using the World Bank's multi-topic longitudinal survey data for Nigeria collected between 2010 and 2020, covering the period before and after the pandemic. The results show that this vulnerability measure severely underperforms in predicting food-insecure households out of sample relative to a simple, data-driven routine. Sensitivity tests using only the pre-pandemic data reveal that the poor forecasting performance is not simply due to the discontinuity in the data-generating process brought about by mobility restrictions. This evidence carries two important implications: i) from the methodological point of view, there is a need to enhance the effectiveness of targeting approaches employed by policymakers to identify vulnerability hotspots; ii) from a data-oriented perspective, this work underscores that predictive vulnerability models, regardless of their theoretical soundness or computational power, are constrained by data availability in data-scarce environments. Overall, we argue that greater methodological effort is required to address the limitations of current approaches in anticipating vulnerability to shocks.
State level differences in life expectancy and lifespan inequality: Is it a matter of socioeconomic inequalities?
Wijesinghe MDJW, Cameron MP, Olivia S … +1 more , Oxley L
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Dec · PMID 41319627 · Publisher ↗
Lifespan inequality refers to the variation in the age at which people die or the uncertainty surrounding the time of their death. This study investigates the patterns of lifespan inequality at the state level in the Uni...
Lifespan inequality refers to the variation in the age at which people die or the uncertainty surrounding the time of their death. This study investigates the patterns of lifespan inequality at the state level in the United States between 1959 and 2018, utilising Theil's entropy index. We also explore the demographic and socioeconomic factors associated with lifespan inequality using a Panel-Corrected Standard Errors (PCSE) model. We observe a strong and statistically significant negative correlation between life expectancy and lifespan inequality at the state level overall and for both males and females. In terms of demographic and socioeconomic factors, the percentage of individuals who have completed high school and college education, the percentage of the Hispanic population, the number of physicians, the percentage of individuals under 65 with insurance, and population growth are all negatively associated with lifespan inequality. Moreover, there is a positive association between lifespan inequality and the rates of violent crime, CO emissions per capita, and cigarette smoking. Our results reiterate that policies aimed at tackling disparities in socioeconomic position could also serve as useful strategies for addressing health disparities.
The effect of cash transfers on maternal health seeking: Evidence from Ecuador.
Maggio D, Cavanagh J
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Dec · PMID 41319626 · Publisher ↗
Governments often aim to increase health service uptake using financial incentives. In the case of maternal healthcare, where the quality gradient between informal and formal care is quite steep, these incentives have th...
Governments often aim to increase health service uptake using financial incentives. In the case of maternal healthcare, where the quality gradient between informal and formal care is quite steep, these incentives have the potential to improve birth outcomes significantly. However, whether these programs encourage care ultimately depends on the elasticity of demand for care. We examine the effects of one such program in Ecuador that aimed to incentivize care through conditional cash transfers for antenatal care and lump-sum grants to facilitate delivery. We employ a difference-in-discontinuities approach, exploiting a discontinuity created by the program's targeting method to identify its causal impact. Our findings reveal a 10 percent increase in institutional deliveries, a 3.5 percent increase in trained delivery care, and a 20 percent increase in births at private facilities. We do not see evidence of a complementary increase in the uptake of antenatal care services, which was already high before the program. Our results also suggest a marginal decrease in birth weights as a result of the program, which we attribute to selection into measurement. We show that our difference-in-discontinuity approach improves precision compared to traditional regression discontinuity designs, but does so at the cost of increased specification error..
Income-related mortality inequality and macroeconomic conditions.
Lissdaniels J, Gerdtham UG, Heckley G
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Dec · PMID 41319625 · Publisher ↗
This study examines the relationship between income-related health inequality (IRHI) and macroeconomic conditions. We complement an income group-based analysis of the impact of macroeconomic conditions on mortality by in...
This study examines the relationship between income-related health inequality (IRHI) and macroeconomic conditions. We complement an income group-based analysis of the impact of macroeconomic conditions on mortality by incorporating an analysis of the concentration index as a comprehensive measure of overall IRHI. Using a recentered influence function regression approach, we estimate the impact of macroeconomic conditions on mortality and its inequality over two decades of dramatically different macroeconomic environments in Sweden. We utilise individual-level administrative data on the entire male population aged 20-44 over the years 1979-2000. Our findings reveal nuanced dynamics. During the relatively stable macroeconomic period of the 1980s, mortality rates and their inequality remained largely unaffected by macroeconomic conditions. However, the macroeconomic turbulence of the 1990s generally increased mortality inequality, although not uniformly across all measures. This underscores the importance of using various inequality measures in empirical studies.
The value of extending healthy life expectancy: A framework for healthcare policy evaluation.
Ito K, Tanizawa Y, Takashima R
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Dec · PMID 41308578 · Publisher ↗
The widening gap between life expectancy (LE) and healthy life expectancy (HALE) has led to an increase in healthcare burden. Extending HALE presents a promising solution. However, realizing HALE extension requires subst...
The widening gap between life expectancy (LE) and healthy life expectancy (HALE) has led to an increase in healthcare burden. Extending HALE presents a promising solution. However, realizing HALE extension requires substantial policy support, necessitating a quantitative and rational assessment of its value. Based on the economic model of the value of a statistical life (VSL), we propose a quantitative framework to measure the value of extending HALE and to assess related policy impacts. This modeling framework incorporates regional characteristics and quality of life (QoL), providing a flexible tool for evaluating healthcare policies. Through numerical analysis, we demonstrate that the value of HALE extension varies across age and QoL scenarios, suggesting the necessity of incorporating these factors to ensure effective policy implementation. Our analysis of policy impact highlights the realistic effect of HALE extension initiatives and potential benefits of narrowing the gap between LE and HALE. From a policy-making perspective, narrowing this gap could significantly alleviate healthcare burdens.
Real wages around the world: Insights from linear programming and accounting for climate differences.
Moatsos M, de Zwart P
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Dec · PMID 41297368 · Publisher ↗
We collected the vast majority of price and wage data stemming out of the vibrant historical real wage literature of the last two decades. We applied a consistent methodology across the 86 included markets from around th...
We collected the vast majority of price and wage data stemming out of the vibrant historical real wage literature of the last two decades. We applied a consistent methodology across the 86 included markets from around the world, with observations spanning from ca. 1200 to 1965. For computing the cost of living, our methodology accounts for the differences in temperatures across those markets. This adjustment impies higher costs for colder countries, with important ramifications. This approach reveals different levels and trends in relation to the "Little", "Great" and "Colonial" Divergences. Unfortunately, the coverage is still considerably skewed towards European countries. Further work in the field of global real wages can fill this gap, and improve current estimates, for example by increasing the products covered and reducing the need for imputations that are used widely in the literature.
Economic costs of distancing policy interventions.
Rácz OM
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Dec · PMID 41289638 · Publisher ↗
Outbreaks of new viruses are increasingly likely in the warming global climate. In the absence of medical treatments, distancing policy interventions (DPIs) are expected to remain the primary containment strategy. While...
Outbreaks of new viruses are increasingly likely in the warming global climate. In the absence of medical treatments, distancing policy interventions (DPIs) are expected to remain the primary containment strategy. While effective in limiting social interactions and curbing transmission, DPIs also disrupt economic activity. This paper estimates the short-run economic effects of DPIs using monthly macroeconomic indicators from 44 countries during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The main contribution of the paper is that its estimates account for not only the direct (DPI-compliant) but also the indirect (DPI-triggered voluntary) distancing effects of DPI-s, providing greater policy-relevance than earlier estimates neglecting indirect effects. DPI effects are identified in a two-stage empirical design. The first stage leverages a sharp decline in weekly social mobility following initial DPIs to isolate policy-driven behavior. The second stage carries these effects over to monthly indicators (industrial and manufacturing production, construction output, retail trade, inflation, and unemployment) using a difference-in-differences framework. I find substantial output losses attributable to DPIs, while voluntary distancing also contributed, but to a lesser extent. No significant inflationary or unemployment effects are detected. These findings suggest that output losses should be the primary economic concern when implementing distancing interventions in future pandemics.
Maternal circumstances and intergenerational transmission of health: A model-based recursive partitioning approach from Machine Learning.
Brahma D, Ghosh S
Econ Hum Biol · 2025 Dec · PMID 41285063 · Publisher ↗
This paper investigates how different maternal circumstances affect the intergenerational transmission of health from mother to infants differentially. Using a novel model-based recursive partitioning algorithm from the...
This paper investigates how different maternal circumstances affect the intergenerational transmission of health from mother to infants differentially. Using a novel model-based recursive partitioning algorithm from the Machine Learning literature that uses econometric tests for parameter instability, this study identifies different circumstance profiles characterized by varying coefficients of intergenerational health transmission. Results exhibit considerable heterogeneity by both short-run and long run markers of maternal health and reveal that a global model for investigating intergenerational transmission is inadequate. Worse-off circumstances have stronger intergenerational transmission rates of maternal health to newborns. The results have implications for building more targeted social safety net policies and improve our understanding of how to break intergenerational cycles of ill-health.
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