Hypertension effects of the COVID-19 lockdowns: Evidence from a repeated cross-sectional survey in Peru.

Using data from Peru and a quasi-experimental approach, we document significant increases in arterial blood pressure and in the incidence of arterial hypertension caused by the restrictive measures employed by the Peruvian authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The effects are more pronounced for women, older respondents, and urban residents. The effects are statistically significant and high in magnitude relative to the pre-pandemic incidence of disease in the Peruvian population.

Severe Air Pollution Exposure and Long-Term Health Outcomes.

Background: There is a large literature that documents the negative health implications of exposure to air pollution, particularly PM2.5. Much of this literature, however, relies on short-term cross-sectional data, which cannot establish a true causal link between pollution and health.

Risk and Time Preferences, Subjective Social Status, and Smoking Behaviors.

In the context of rapidly developing economies, socioeconomic changes bring about increased inequality, lower perceived social status, stress, and depression, all of which contribute to the high incidence of smoking. In this study, we investigate the linkages between social status and smoking behaviors. Using data from Indonesia, we use regression analysis to study the roles of socioeconomic factors and individual risk and time preferences in determining smoking behaviors.

Subjective socioeconomic status, health, and early-life conditions.

We study the role of subjective social status on health and its correlates, with an emphasis on the predictive power of early-life conditions on subjective social status. A well-established literature links early-life conditions to later-life objective measures of socioeconomic status, but little attention has been paid to their effects on subjective socioeconomic status. We find that socioeconomic factors during childhood are important predictors of subjective social status, even after controlling for contemporaneous socioeconomic conditions.

Screening, diagnosis, and long-term health outcomes in developing countries-The case of hypertension.

Hypertension is a rapidly growing problem in developing countries. At the same time, due to its asymptomatic nature, the afflicted population is largely unaware of being hypertensive. Due to a lack of resources, routine medical exams are very rare in developing countries and many sick individuals remain undiagnosed.

Perceived social status and unhealthy habits in Korea.

Background: The association between socioeconomic status and unhealthy behaviors is well-documented in the literature. Less is known, however, about the role of subjective social status, but recent evidence shows that perceived standing in the social hierarchy has important roles in health.

Methods: This paper studies the association between perceived social status and the consumption of alcohol and tobacco among the South Korean elderly.

Long-run health consequences of air pollution: Evidence from Indonesia's forest fires of 1997.

While many studies in the medical literature documented causal relationships between air pollution and negative health outcomes immediately following exposure, much less is known about the long run health consequences of pollution exposure. Using the 1997 Indonesian forest fires as a natural experiment, we estimate the long term effects of air pollution on health outcomes. We take advantage of the longitudinal nature of the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS), which collects detailed individual data on a multitude of health outcomes, in both 1997 and 2007.

Education, individual time preferences, and asymptomatic disease detection.

Asymptomatic conditions such as hypertension are generally hard to diagnose, absent routine medical examinations. This is especially problematic in developing countries, where most citizens do not engage in routine examinations due to limited economic resources. We study the roles of education and individual time preferences in asymptomatic disease detection and management.

The dynamics of health and its determinants among the elderly in developing countries.

This paper examines the persistence of bad health among the elderly, and attempts to identify its determinants. We are particularly interested in the role of recent past bad health. Using a panel data set from Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS), several health measures such as poor general health status (poor GHS), hypertension, and low body mass index (low BMI) are examined.