We consider the covariance structure of health. Agents report their health status on the basis of a latent health stock that is determined by permanent and transitory shocks, and time invariant fixed effects. At age 25, permanent shocks account for 5% to 10% of the variation in health. At age...

This paper investigates the evolution of health over the life-cycle using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We allow for two sources of persistence: unobserved heterogeneity and state dependence. The former is modeled by discrete “types.” Estimation indicates that there are at least four...

We consider the relationship between health and time allocation. Better health is associated with more time allocated towards production on the market and at home, but less consumption of leisure. This suggests that health exerts large effects on market productivity, but larger effects on...

We investigate the evolution of health inequality over the life-course. Health is modeled as a latent variable that is determined by three factors: endowments, and permanent and transitory shocks. We employ Simulated Minimum Distance and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to estimate the model....

In this paper, we quantify the effects of health on time allocation. We estimate that improvements in health status have large and positive effects on time allocated to home and market production and large negative effects on time spent watching TV, sleeping, and consuming other types of...

Washington was the first state to ease the prescription requirements making emergency contraception (EC) available behind-the-counter at pharmacies to women of any age in 1998. I hypothesize that the increased availability of EC affects fertility rates beyond the borders of the state that allows...

Emergency contraception (EC), that gained FDA’s approval in the late 1990s as a prescription medicine, may effectively prevent unwanted pregnancy if taken promptly after an unprotected sexual intercourse. Because EC efficacy is inversely related to the duration between intercourse and the...

In this paper, we use longitudinal data on Self-Reported Health Status from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to estimate a model of the evolution of health over the life-cycle. The model allows for two sources of persistence in health: unobserved heterogeneity, which models an individual’s...