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Mortality
rates jump in the days after older people receive a payment, whether
the source is Social Security, a paycheck or a one-time outlay like a
tax refund, a study finds. The greater number of deaths appears to be
related to bursts of consumption, which usually involve more physical
activity.
People who
started receiving Social Security payments before May 1997 get their
checks on the third of the month. Using data from the National Center
for Health Statistics, researchers analyzed the deaths of people 65 and
over, from 1973 to 1996. Daily mortality was about 0.5% higher the week
after a payment than the week before. There were more heart-attack
deaths, which can be stress-related, but not more cancer deaths. For
retirees who enrolled after May 1997 and get paid on a schedule set by
birthdays, daily mortality rose 1% in the post-check week.
"The Short-Term Mortality Consequences of Income Receipt," William N. Evans and Timothy J. Moore, Journal of Public Economics (forthcoming)
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