Local house prices and mental health

Do housing prices affect individual physical health? Evidence from China

This study identifies the health effect of rising housing prices on individual physical health using the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) data. Exploiting exogenous housing prices, I find that rising housing prices adversely affect physical health status. Heterogeneity analyses yield interesting findings. First, the adverse effects of high housing prices are pronounced in the group owning only one house. Second, significant effects of housing prices on health for the group aged 20 to 45 are observed, with no effects for the elderly group above 45. Third, males are more sensitive to high housing prices due to the intensified competition and traditional gender norm in marriage markets. I also further investigate the channel through which housing prices affect individual physical health. The findings indicate that rising housing prices can damage individual physical health via lowering social status, reducing physical exercise time and increasing mental health risk.

The impact of housing prices on residents' health: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Rising housing prices are becoming a top public health priority and are an emerging concern for policy makers and community leaders. This report reviews and synthesizes evidence examining the association between changes in housing price and health outcomes.

METHODS

We conducted a systematic literature review by searching the SCOPUS and PubMed databases for keywords related to housing price and health. Articles were screened by two reviewers for eligibility, which restricted inclusion to original research articles measuring changes in housing prices and health outcomes, published prior to June 31st, 2022.

RESULTS

Among 23 eligible studies, we found that changes in housing prices were heterogeneously associated with physical and mental health outcomes, with multiple mechanisms contributing to both positive and negative health outcomes. Income-level and home-ownership status were identified as key moderators, with lower-income individuals and renters experience negative health consequences from rising housing prices. This may have resulted from increased stress and financial strain among these groups. Meanwhile, the economic benefits of rising housing prices were seen to support health for higher-income individuals and homeowners - potentially due to increased wealth or perception of wealth.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the associations identified in this review, it appears that potential gains to health associated with rising housing prices are inequitably distributed. Housing policies should consider the health inequities born by renters and low-income individuals. Further research should explore mechanisms and interventions to reduce uneven economic impacts on health.

The Role of Housing Tenure Opportunities in the Social Integration of the Aging Pre-1970 Migrants in Beijing

This study focuses on the social integration of the pre-1970 first-generation migrants in reformist China, who were born before the year 1970 while getting old in the destination cities. The pre-1970 first-generation migrants are not a homogeneous group but are composed of: (a) those over 45 years old and still working but facing age discrimination; and (b) the elderly granny as nanny assuming the domestic and child-care work for their sons or daughters in the destination cities. We conceptualized and re-defined the aging migrants’ social integration into three dimensions (i.e., participation practices, communication contacts, and subjective perceptions), and used the 2017 Migrant Dynamics Monitoring Survey (MDMS) data from Beijing to measure and explain the varied integration levels among a total of 1267 aging migrant samples in the Beijing metropolis. It is proven that housing tenure matters and housing tenure entitlement would be conductive to beefing up aging migrants’ integration. However, informal housing should not be “stigmatized” as a segregated world, since those dwelling in the informal housing have reported a higher probability of perceiving a fully integrated status (namely subjective well-being, SWB) than those living in the dormitory-like housing. Additionally, an employment-income paradox is found, which shows that higher economic achievement is NOT equivalent to a higher social integration status for the aging migrants.

Impact of house price growth on mental health: Evidence from China

Background

Housing boom has raised global attention in the past two decades. A number of studies attempted to analyse the effect of house price increase. However, little is known about the health consequence as a result of housing boom, likely due to the scarcity of the data. The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between housing affordability and mental health as a result of house price increase.

Methods

Based on a panel dataset of 32 Chinese cities from January 2013 to December 2017, we used a fixed effect model adjusting for per capita disposable income to estimate the impact of house price growth rate on mental health, and applied the Instrumental Variable (IV) method to address the endogeneity problem.

Results

From both Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and IV estimations, the results suggested that a one standard deviation increase in house price increase rate in the past three months is associated with a 0.443 standard deviation increase in people consulting with doctors about their mental disorders in the city. This effect does not vary by gender, but was more pronounced in residents older than 40 years.

Conclusion

These results revealed the potential negative consequences in people's mental health due to house price increase, necessitate appropriate policy responses.

The effects of import competition on health in the local economy

We provide evidence that average mental, physical, and general health worsens for employed workers in local U.S. labor markets exposed to greater import competition from China. The effects are greatest for mental health. Moving a region from the 25th to 75th percentiles of import exposure corresponds to a 7.8% increase in the morbidity of poor mental health, adding about 3 days of poor mental health per year for the average adult. Concurrently, the ability to afford health care decreases. Our results complement documented consequences of import competition on labor markets and temporary business cycle shocks on health outcomes.

The impact of changing economic conditions on overweight risk among children in California from 2008 to 2012

BACKGROUND

The recent economic recession represents an opportunity to test whether decreases in economic resources may have deleterious consequences on childhood overweight/obesity risk.

METHODS

We investigated the association between indicators of changing macroeconomic conditions from 2008 to 2012 and overweight/obesity risk among school-aged children in California (n=1 741 712) using longitudinal anthropometric measurements. Multivariate regression, with individual and county fixed effects, was used to examine the effects of annual county-level unemployment and foreclosure rates on risk of child overweight/obesity, overall and among subgroups (race/ethnicity, sex, county-level median household income and county-level urban/rural status).

RESULTS

From 2008 to 2012, ∼38% of children were overweight/obese and unemployment and foreclosure rates averaged 11% and 6.9%, respectively. A 1-percentage point (pp) increase in unemployment was associated with a 1.4 pp (95% CI 1.3 to 1.5) increase in overweight/obesity risk. Therefore, a child of average weight could expect a 14% increase in their body mass index z-score in association with a 1 pp increase in unemployment during the study period. We found some differences in the magnitude of the effects for unemployment among demographic subgroups, with the largest effects observed for unemployment among American Indians and Pacific Islanders.

CONCLUSIONS

Comparing children to themselves over time, we provide evidence that increases in county-level unemployment are associated with increased overweight/obesity risk. Given that overweight among children with lower economic resources remains a challenge for public health, these findings highlight the importance of policy-level approaches, which aim to mitigate the impact of decreased resources as economic conditions change.