The Effects of Economic Conditions on Behavior and Health

This doctoral dissertation, entitled "The Effects of Economic Conditions on Behavior and Health", falls within the field of health economics and human capital, examining how policies, economic conditions, and targeted interventions shape health-related behaviors across the life cycle. The work frames sleep and lifestyle choices as intertemporal investments influenced by informational, institutional, and economic constraints, employing empirical methods including randomized experiments, policy evaluation, and quasi-experimental analysis of macroeconomic shocks. The dissertation is structured into three main chapters. The first chapter documents persistent racial disparities in children’s sleep in the United States, showing that Black children systematically go to bed later than their White peers. Using a randomized online experiment, the study demonstrates that low-cost and significative informational interventions. These findings suggest that informative interventions can reduce sleep disparities among children and improve human capital accumulation. The second chapter provides the first causal evidence on the impact of medical (MCL) and recreational (RCL) cannabis legalization on adult sleep duration. Results reveal substantial heterogeneity: medical cannabis legalization increases the probability of adequate sleep among middle-aged adults (45–60 years), while recreational legalization reduces it, particularly among adults aged 30–44 exposed to high levels of work-related psychological stress. This demonstrates that the effects of cannabis policies critically depend on the type of law and the life stage of the population. The third chapter examines the long-term effects of exposure to youth unemployment (ages 18–25) on adult health behaviors. Greater exposure to youth unemployment increases the likelihood and duration of daily smoking while reducing excessive alcohol consumption, vigorous physical activity, and frequent fruit and vegetable intake. These early economic shocks also increase the probability of engaging in physically demanding jobs and result in lower adult income and wealth, contributing to persistent inequalities in health and economic well-being. This dissertation contributes to the literature by providing causal evidence on how environmental, institutional, and economic factors shape health behaviors, with a particular focus on disparities. The findings highlight that public health interventions and policies should be tailored to life-cycle stages, socioeconomic contexts, and the specific nature of shocks—informational, regulatory, or economic— to effectively mitigate inequalities and improve long-term individual and societal well-being.