Young people tend to smoke more, do less sport, and are more frequently overweight, the lower their mother's school-leaving qualifications. This has been shown by a study conducted by DIW Berlin using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP). At least some of these health-related...

This paper estimates the causal effect of retirement on health, health behavior, and healthcare utilization. Using Regression Discontinuity Design to exploit financial incentives in the German pension system for identification, I investigate a wide range of health behaviors (e.g. alcohol and...

Job reallocation is considered to be a key characteristic of well-functioning labor markets, as more productive firms grow and less productive ones contract or close. However, despite its potential benefits for the economy, there are significant costs that are borne by displaced workers. We...

This paper estimates the effect of involuntary job loss on smoking behavior and body weight using German Socio-Economic Panel Study data. Baseline nonsmokers are more likely to start smoking due to job loss, while smokers do not intensify their smoking. Job loss increases body weight slightly,...

This paper analyzes the relationship between individuals' locus of control and their decisions to exercise regularly, eat well, drink moderately, and avoid tobacco. Our primary goal is to assess the relative importance of the alternative pathways that potentially link locus of control to healthy...

A substantial body of evidence indicates that regular engagement in moderate-intensity physical activity on most days of the week is sufficient for older adults to achieve positive health outcomes. Although there is a growing body of literature that examines the affect of neighborhood...

The formulation and communication of fish advisories are highly complex because of the potential conflict between the nutritional and toxicological issues associated with fish consumption. Government and organization-sponsored fish advisories have had limited success in changing behaviors....

The threat of a widespread avian flu influenza outbreak represented a significant public health challenge for the European region during late 2005 and early 2006. Little is known, however, about how individuals learn about new global-level health risks, especially influenza outbreaks. We...

Most models exploring adolescent health behavior have focused on individual influences to understand behavior change. The goal of the current study was to assess the role of adolescent romantic partners on the expression of health behavior. Our sample utilized two waves of data from the US...

In recent years, remarkable progress has been made in behavioral research on a wide variety of topics, from behavioral finance, labor contracts, philanthropy, and the analysis of savings and poverty, to eyewitness identification and sentencing decisions, racism, sexism, health behaviors, and...