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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2020 Mar 18.
Published in final edited form as: Am Econ Rev. 2019 Dec;109(12):4178–4219. doi: 10.1257/aer.20180279

Table 7—

Summary Statistics for the Medicare Beneficiaries Most and Least Affected by Pollution

Outcome: Bottom 75% Top 1% Difference
(1) (2) (3)
Life expectancy (years) 11.6 3.65 −7.91
(0.00192)
Demographics
Age (years) 75.7 82.9 7.20
(0.00321)
Male 0.399 0.441 0.042
(0.000108)
Chronic conditions
Alzheimer’s or dementia 0.0849 0.470 0.385
(0.000155)
Chronic kidney disease 0.113 0.422 0.309
(0.000164)
COPD 0.169 0.495 0.326
(0.000197)
Heart failure 0.187 0.650 0.463
(0.000128)
Lung cancer 0.00781 0.0705 0.0627
(0.0000601)
Medical spending {dollars)
Durable medical equipment 136 785 648
(1.05)
Hospice 63.8 1,126 1,062
(2.90)
Hospital outpatient 750 3,767 3,018
(2.92)
Part B drug 238 1,613 1,375
(2.43)
Part B other 85 779 694
(2.06)
Medical events
Dialysis 0.051 0.884 0.833
(0.00158)
Durable medical equipment 1.76 8.28 6.52
(0.00696)
Hospice stays 0.0012 0.0236 0.0224
(0.0000613)
Part B drug 2.60 8.78 6.18
(0.00914)
Part B evaluation and management 4.65 25.3 20.7
(0.040)

Notes: Column 1 presents means for person-day observations predicted to have treatment effects in the bottom 75 percent. Column 2 presents means for those with treatment effects in the top 1 percent. Column 3 reports the difference between columns 2 and 1. Life expectancy is predicted using the Cox-Lasso model described by equation (7). All demographic, chronic condition, medical spending, and medical event variables listed in this table are the most significant predictors of remaining life expectancy within their respective categories. Medical spending and medical events are measured over the calendar year prior to the date of the observation. Hospice stays are defined as the number of unique admissions. For all other medical events, the event is defined as each line item on the insurance claim that contains the relevant service. COPD stands for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Standard errors, clustered by county, are reported in parentheses.