Arbeitspapier

The company you keep: Health behavior among work peers

There is widespread agreement that behavior crucially influences one's health. However, little is known about what actually determines health-related behavior. We explore the impact of the place where many people spend most of their time, at work, and analyze whether an individual's decision to participate in health screening is related to the observed behavior of peers at work. We use linked employer-employee data and exploit the transitions of workers to new jobs. We find the health behavior of co-workers highly correlated. A comparison of individuals moving into new firms shows that participation in general health checks, mammography screening, and prostate-specific antigen tests increases with the share of work peers attending these screenings. To differentiate between peer effects and common influences at the workplace, we further separate the peer groups within firms and show that workers with similar characteristics tend to have a stronger effect on individual screening participation.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: Working Paper ; No. 1707

Classification
Wirtschaft
Health: General
Health Behavior
Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
Subject
Health behavior
screening
peer effects
workplace

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Pruckner, Gerald J.
Zocher, Katrin
Schober, Thomas
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Department of Economics
(where)
Linz
(when)
2017

Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Pruckner, Gerald J.
  • Zocher, Katrin
  • Schober, Thomas
  • Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Department of Economics

Time of origin

  • 2017

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