Causal Spousal Health Spillover Effects and Implications for Program Evaluation
研究发现配偶间健康行为存在因果溢出效应，治疗干预会显著减少配偶的吸烟和饮酒行为，使部分治疗的成本效益比降低12%至18%，这对健康干预项目的评估和资源分配有重要启示。
Current methods of cost effectiveness analysis implicitly assume zero spillovers among social ties. This can underestimate the benefits of health interventions and misallocate resources toward interventions with lower comprehensive effects. We discuss the implications of social spillovers for program evaluation and document the first evidence of causal spillovers of health behaviors between spouses by leveraging experimental data from the Lung Health Study (smoking) and COMBINE Study (drinking). We find large decreases in spousal substance use from treatments with a therapy component, which reduces the incremental cost effectiveness ratios of some treatments by 12 to 18 percent.