Community Effects on Elderly Health: Evidence from CHARLS National Baseline There is increasing interest in neighborhood or area effects on health and individual development. China, due to its vast regional variations in health infrastructure and geography and relative immobility of older residents, provides a rare opportunity to study such effects. Utilizing China Health and Retirement Longitu...

The Economic Security Index: A New Measure for Research and Policy Analysis This paper presents the Economic Security Index (ESI), a new, more comprehensive measure of economic insecurity. By combining data from multiple surveys, we create an integrated measure of volatility in available household resources, accounting for fluctuations in income and out-of-pocket medical expenses, as well as fi...

We contribute to the literature on the determinants of socioeconomic health disparities by studying how the health behavior of adolescents may arise from the degree of communication between parent and child. Parent-child communication may function as a mediator between family background and subsequent poor health behavior, potentially reconciling previous mixed evidence on the relationship betw...

In the context of Sweden, we show that having a doctor in family raises preventive health investments throughout life cycle, improves physical health, and prolongs life. Two quasi-experimental research designs—medical school admission lotteries variation timing medical degrees—support causal interpretation these effects. A hypothetical policy would bring same behavior changes benefits to all Sw...

We contribute to the literature on the determinants of socioeconomic health disparities by studying how the health behavior of adolescents may arise from the degree of communication between parent and child. Parent-child communication may function as a mediator between family background and subsequent poor health behavior, potentially reconciling previous mixed evidence on the relationship betw...