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Winning big but feeling no better? the effect of lottery prizes on physical and mental health

Apouey, B., Clark, Andrew E. (2015) Winning big but feeling no better? the effect of lottery prizes on physical and mental health. Health Economics, 24 (5). pp. 516-538. ISSN 1057-9230. (doi:10.1002/hec.3035) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:69180)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hec.3035

Abstract

We use British panel data to determine the exogenous impact of income on a number of individual health outcomes: general health status, mental health, physical health problems, and health behaviours (drinking and smoking). Lottery winnings allow us to make causal statements regarding the effect of income on health, as the amount won by winners is largely exogenous. Positive income shocks have no significant effect on self-assessed overall health, but a significant positive effect on mental health. This result seems paradoxical on two levels. First, there is a well-known gradient in health status in cross-sectional data, and second, general health should partly reflect mental health, so that we may expect both variables to move in the same direction. We propose a solution to the first apparent paradox by underlining the endogeneity of income. For the second, we show that lottery winnings are also associated with more smoking and social drinking. General health will reflect both mental health and the effect of these behaviours and so may not improve following a positive income shock.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1002/hec.3035
Uncontrolled keywords: adolescent; adult; aged; Article; awards and prizes; controlled study; drinking behavior; female; health status; human; income; intuition; lottery; major clinical study; male; mental health; priority journal; self evaluation; smoking; very elderly; cross-sectional study; epidemiology; health behavior; socioeconomics, Alcohol Drinking; Awards and Prizes; Cross-Sectional Studies; Health Behavior; Health Status; Humans; Income; Mental Health; Smoking; Socioeconomic Factors
Subjects: H Social Sciences
Divisions: Divisions > Kent Business School - Division > Department of Leadership and Management
Depositing User: Andrew Clark
Date Deposited: 21 Sep 2018 11:16 UTC
Last Modified: 17 Aug 2022 11:02 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/69180 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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