Income Effects on Health: Evidence from Union Army Pensions

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: University of Toronto
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050715000674
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 448-478
• 关键词: mortality; decline

摘要

To what extent do rising income levels explain the decline in adult mortality rates experienced in the United States a centuay ago? I explore this question by investigating the income effect of the country's first wide-scale entitlement program: the Union Army pensions. Documenting that Republican Congressional candidates boosted pensions to secure votes, I exploit exogenous increases in income stemming from patronage politics to estimate the semi-elasticity of disease onset with respect to pensions. Income effects are large for cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and respiratory illnesses.