An Introduction to the Structure of Biomarker Equations

Most economists are not familiar with so-called biomarker data. We attempt here to provide an introduction to such data and to describe the econometric structure of simple biomarker equations. We draw upon information on the heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fibrinogen, and C-reactive protein levels of 100,000 adults. We show that it is extremely important to control for fruit and vegetable consumption (more so than is conventionally recognized in health economics). Once that is done, there are income gradients only in heart-rate and C-reactive protein equations, and those gradients are small. Education enters remarkably weakly in these biomarker equations.