Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/265714 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 15493
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Longevity expectations (LE) are subjective assessments of future health status that can influence a number of individual health protective decisions. This is especially true during a pandemic such as COVID-19, as the risk of ill health depends more than ever on such protective decisions. This paper exploits differences in LE to examine the causal effect of LE on protective health behaviours and a number of decisions around access to health care, using data from the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe. We draw on an instrumental variable strategy exploiting individual level information on parental age at death. Consistent with the too healthy to be sick hypothesis, we find that individuals with higher expected longevity are more likely to engage in protective behaviours, and are less likely to forgo medical treatment. We estimate that a one standard deviation increase in expected longevity increases the probability to comply always with social distancing by 0.6%, to meet people less often by 0.4% and decreases the probability to forgo any medical treatment by 0.6%. Our estimates vary depending on the availability of health care, as well as individuals' gender and pre-existing health conditions.
Subjects: 
SHARE
longevity expectations
private information
health behaviours
forgone medical treatment
health capital
Europe
instrumental variables
COVID-19
JEL: 
I12
I18
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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