IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/poprpr/v34y2015i3p437-460.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the Inequality-Mortality Relationship in the US with Bayesian Spatial Modeling

Author

Listed:
  • Tse-Chuan Yang
  • Leif Jensen

Abstract

While there is evidence to suggest that socioeconomic inequality within places is associated with mortality rates among people living within them, the empirical connection between the two remains unsettled as potential confounders associated with racial and social structure are overlooked. This study seeks to test this relationship, to determine whether it is due to differential levels of deprivation and social capital, and does so with intrinsically conditional autoregressive Bayesian spatial modeling that effectively addresses the bias introduced by spatial dependence. We find that deprivation and social capital partly but do not completely account for why inequality is positively associated with mortality and that spatial modeling generates more accurate predictions than does the traditional approach. We advance the literature by unveiling the intervening roles of social capital and deprivation in the inequality-mortality relationship and offering new evidence that inequality matters in US county mortality rates. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Tse-Chuan Yang & Leif Jensen, 2015. "Exploring the Inequality-Mortality Relationship in the US with Bayesian Spatial Modeling," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 34(3), pages 437-460, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:poprpr:v:34:y:2015:i:3:p:437-460
    DOI: 10.1007/s11113-014-9350-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11113-014-9350-9
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11113-014-9350-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Angus Deaton, 2003. "Health, Inequality, and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(1), pages 113-158, March.
    2. Kawachi, I. & Kennedy, B.P. & Glass, R., 1999. "Social capital and self-rated health: A contextual analysis," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 89(8), pages 1187-1193.
    3. Angus Deaton, 2001. "Relative Deprivation, Inequality, and Mortality," NBER Working Papers 8099, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Wilkinson, Richard G & Pickett, Kate E., 2006. "Income inequality and population health: A review and explanation of the evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(7), pages 1768-1784, April.
    5. A S Fotheringham & D W S Wong, 1991. "The Modifiable Areal Unit Problem in Multivariate Statistical Analysis," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 23(7), pages 1025-1044, July.
    6. Abraído-Lanza, A.F. & Dohrenwend, B.P. & Ng-Mak, D.S. & Turner, J.B., 1999. "The Latino mortality paradox: A test of the 'salmon bias' and healthy migrant hypotheses," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 89(10), pages 1543-1548.
    7. Deaton, Angus & Lubotsky, Darren, 2003. "Mortality, inequality and race in American cities and states," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(6), pages 1139-1153, March.
    8. Richard Burkhauser & Shuaizhang Feng & Stephen Jenkins & Jeff Larrimore, 2011. "Estimating trends in US income inequality using the Current Population Survey: the importance of controlling for censoring," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(3), pages 393-415, September.
    9. Singh, G.K., 2003. "Area Deprivation and Widening Inequalities in US Mortality, 1969-1998," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(7), pages 1137-1143.
    10. Paul Voss, 2007. "Demography as a Spatial Social Science," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 26(5), pages 457-476, December.
    11. repec:pri:cheawb:deaton_relative_deprivation is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Ronald Cossman & Jeralynn Cossman & Arthur Cosby & Rebel Reavis, 2008. "Reconsidering the Rural–Urban Continuum in Rural Health Research: A Test of Stable Relationships Using Mortality as a Health Measure," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 27(4), pages 459-476, August.
    13. Kathleen P. Bell & Nancy E. Bockstael, 2000. "Applying the Generalized-Moments Estimation Approach to Spatial Problems Involving Microlevel Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(1), pages 72-82, February.
    14. Julian Besag & Jeremy York & Annie Mollié, 1991. "Bayesian image restoration, with two applications in spatial statistics," Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Springer;The Institute of Statistical Mathematics, vol. 43(1), pages 1-20, March.
    15. Rupasingha, Anil & Goetz, Stephan J. & Freshwater, David, 2006. "The production of social capital in US counties," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 83-101, February.
    16. Kawachi, I. & Kennedy, B.P. & Lochner, K. & Prothrow-Stith, D., 1997. "Social capital, income inequality, and mortality," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 87(9), pages 1491-1498.
    17. repec:pri:cheawb:deaton_relative_deprivation.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    18. David J. Spiegelhalter & Nicola G. Best & Bradley P. Carlin & Angelika Van Der Linde, 2002. "Bayesian measures of model complexity and fit," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 64(4), pages 583-639, October.
    19. Paul Voss & David Long & Roger Hammer & Samantha Friedman, 2006. "County child poverty rates in the US: a spatial regression approach," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 25(4), pages 369-391, August.
    20. Cossman, J.S. & Cossman, R.E. & James, W.L. & Campbell, C.R. & Blanchard, T.C. & Cosby, A.G., 2007. "Persistent clusters of mortality in the United States," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(12), pages 2148-2150.
    21. Kawachi, Ichiro & Kennedy, Bruce P., 1997. "The relationship of income inequality to mortality: Does the choice of indicator matter?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 45(7), pages 1121-1127, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Guangsu Zhou & Lizhong Liu & Yang Song, 2022. "Inequality of opportunity and mass incidents: Evidence from China," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 465-488, July.
    2. Shiue-Shan Weng & Ta-Chien Chan & Pei-Ying Hsu & Shu-Fen Niu, 2021. "Neighbourhood Social Determinants of Health and Geographical Inequalities in Premature Mortality in Taiwan: A Spatiotemporal Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-14, July.
    3. Thayer Alshaabi & David R Dewhurst & James P Bagrow & Peter S Dodds & Christopher M Danforth, 2021. "The sociospatial factors of death: Analyzing effects of geospatially-distributed variables in a Bayesian mortality model for Hong Kong," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-20, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yang, Tse-Chuan & Chen, Vivian Yi-Ju & Shoff, Carla & Matthews, Stephen A., 2012. "Using quantile regression to examine the effects of inequality across the mortality distribution in the U.S. counties," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(12), pages 1900-1910.
    2. Tse-Chuan Yang & Stephen A Matthews, 2015. "Death by Segregation: Does the Dimension of Racial Segregation Matter?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(9), pages 1-26, September.
    3. B. d'Hombres & L. Rocco & M. Suhrcke & M. McKee, 2010. "Does social capital determine health? Evidence from eight transition countries," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(1), pages 56-74, January.
    4. Grönqvist, Hans & Johansson, Per & Niknami, Susan, 2012. "Income inequality and health: Lessons from a refugee residential assignment program," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 617-629.
    5. Angus Deaton, 2003. "Health, Inequality, and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(1), pages 113-158, March.
    6. Owen O'Donnell & Eddy Van Doorslaer & Tom Van Ourti, 2013. "Health and Inequality," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-170/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    7. Li, Hongbin & Zhu, Yi, 2006. "Income, income inequality, and health: Evidence from China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 668-693, December.
    8. Ken Judge & Iain Paterson, 2001. "Poverty, Income Inequality and Health," Treasury Working Paper Series 01/29, New Zealand Treasury.
    9. Dahl, Espen & Ivar Elstad, Jon & Hofoss, Dag & Martin-Mollard, Melissa, 2006. "For whom is income inequality most harmful? A multi-level analysis of income inequality and mortality in Norway," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(10), pages 2562-2574, November.
    10. Zheng, Hui, 2012. "Do people die from income inequality of a decade ago?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 36-45.
    11. Shoff, Carla & Yang, Tse-Chuan, 2013. "Understanding maternal smoking during pregnancy: Does residential context matter?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 50-60.
    12. Wilkinson, Richard G & Pickett, Kate E., 2006. "Income inequality and population health: A review and explanation of the evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(7), pages 1768-1784, April.
    13. Godoy, Ricardo & Byron, Elizabeth & Reyes-García, Victoria & Vadez, Vincent & Leonard, William R. & Apaza, Lilian & Huanca, Tomás & Pérez, Eddy & Wilkie, David, 2005. "Income inequality and adult nutritional status: Anthropometric evidence from a pre-industrial society in the Bolivian Amazon," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 907-919, September.
    14. Hongpeng Guo & Yang Yang & Chulin Pan & Shuang Xu & Nan Yan & Qingyong Lei, 2022. "Study on the Impact of Income Gap on Health Level of Rural Residents in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-17, June.
    15. Zheng, Hui, 2009. "Rising U.S. income inequality, gender and individual self-rated health, 1972-2004," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 1333-1342, November.
    16. Pham-Kanter, Genevieve, 2009. "Social comparisons and health: Can having richer friends and neighbors make you sick?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 335-344, August.
    17. Laporte, Audrey & Ferguson, Brian S., 2003. "Income inequality and mortality: time series evidence from Canada," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 107-117, October.
    18. Herzer, Dierk & Nunnenkamp, Peter, 2015. "Income inequality and health: Evidence from developed and developing countries," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 9, pages 1-56.
    19. Luo, Weixiang & Xie, Yu, 2020. "Economic growth, income inequality and life expectancy in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    20. Peter Congdon, 2011. "The Spatial Pattern of Suicide in the US in Relation to Deprivation, Fragmentation and Rurality," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(10), pages 2101-2122, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:poprpr:v:34:y:2015:i:3:p:437-460. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.