Essays in Health Economics of Inhaled Substances

Abstract

This dissertation consists of three standalone chapters that respectively examine individuals’ health behavior associated with inhaled substances: medical marijuana laws on individuals’ exit from unemployment, the high particulate matter level forecast and respiratory-related hospital utilization, and the causal relationship between tobacco use and sleep duration.Chapter 1 is titled “The Impact of Legalizing Medical Marijuana on Exit from Unemployment.” Marijuana use could influence individuals’ work capacity and willingness to work. Given the rising number of states that implement medical marijuana laws (MMLs), I examine whether unemployed individuals would become more or less likely to exit from the unemployment status through the passage of MMLs. By using the linked monthly Current Population Survey (CPS) data, I trace each individual’s labor market transition in response to MMLs. Based on a discrete-time hazard model, I find that MMLs decrease exit from unemployment. Further, I show empirical evidence that a reduction in exit from unemployment is derived from a decreased exit to employment, rather than from changes in labor force participation. This study provides an important perspective that MMLs could have a negative impact on labor market outcomes (JEL Codes: H75, I12, I18, J20, J64). Chapter 2 is titled “Effects of Particulate Matter Forecast on Respiratory-Related Hospital Utilization.” Starting in February 2014, the Korean government introduced the particulate matter (PM) forecast to inform individuals of adverse ambient air quality. Although the PM level has been quite high historically, Korean people have not been very sensitive to the PM level until recently. By leveraging the regional variations in the monthly reported number of at least “bad” PM forecasts, we estimate the effects of the high PM level forecast on respiratory-related hospital utilization with the panel two-way fixed effects model. Empirical results show that monthly asthma and rhinitis hospital utilization decreases with the higher PM levels conditional on the high PM level forecast. On the other hand, COPD hospital use remains largely unaffected. This study would be the first to examine the effects of the PM forecast on respiratory-related hospital utilization in Korea (JEL Codes: I12, I18). Chapter 3 is titled “Tobacco Use and Sleep Duration.” Given the physiological impacts of nicotine on sleep, previous studies have confirmed the negative relationship between tobacco use and sleep. However, to my best knowledge, no studies have attempted to examine the causal relationship between individuals’ tobacco use and sleep duration. In this chapter, I explore the causal direction of tobacco use to sleep by leveraging the state-level tobacco tax policies as instrumental variables (IV). Empirical results show that the causal direction from tobacco use to sleep may not be valid. This study would be the first to examine the causal relationship between tobacco use and sleep using a large-scale public dataset (JEL Codes: I12, I18, I19).