Financial Crisis, Health Outcomes and Aging: Mexico in the 1980s and 1990s / David M. Cutler, Felicia Knaul, Rafael Lozano, Oscar Mendez, Beatriz Zurita.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cutler, David M.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Knaul, Felicia.

Lozano, Rafael.

Mendez, Oscar.

Zurita, Beatriz.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w7746.

NBER working paper series no. w7746

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Financial Crisis, Health Outcomes and Aging

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2000.

Summary:

We study the impact of economic crisis on health in Mexico. There have been four wide-scale economic crises in Mexico in the past two decades, the most recent in 1995-96. We find that mortality rates for the very young and the elderly increase or decline less rapidly in crisis years as compared with non-crisis years. In late 1995-96 crisis, mortality rates were about 5 to 7 percent higher in the crisis years compared to the years just prior to the crisis. This translates into a 0.4 percent increase in mortality for the elderly and a 0.06 percent increase in mortality for the very young. We find tentative evidence that economic crises affect mortality by reducing incomes and possibly by placing a greater burden on the medical sector, but not by forcing less healthy members of the population to work or by forcing primary caregivers to go to work.

Notes:

Print version record

June 2000.