The Effect of Health-Related Behaviors on Income across Provinces: A Panel Dataset

Abstract

Although there are already many studies about how health-related behaviors such as alcohol consumption and physical exercise impact on earnings, most studies suggested the relation of earnings and each health-related behavior alone. This study uses longitude data from different waves to reconfirm, or to reevaluate, the relationship between 5 health-related behaviors and earnings, and to integrate locations factor into the relationship between health-related behaviors and earnings. OLS regression analysis is used to estimate the effects on earnings of various typical health-related behaviors variables including cigarette, tea, coffee, and alcohol consumption and physical exercise. In addition, using fixed effect model, the analysis reduces the bias of the estimation caused by omitted variables to the greatest extent and indicates the relation of income and other tradition variables such as occupation and experience. Finally, interaction effect model is used to examine the disparity between inland and coastal provinces. The results show that alcohol, tea, and coffee consumption, and adequately physical exercise all have significant positive effects on income. Only cigarette consumption has a negative association with income. Furthermore, most health-related behaviors variables do not show the income disparity between inland and coastal provinces when taking the location variable into interaction effect model. Health-related behaviors do not contribute more benefits neither to workers in inland provinces nor those in coastal provinces.