IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/buseco/v57y2022i4d10.1057_s11369-022-00277-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The great divide: education, despair, and death

Author

Listed:
  • Angus Deaton

    (Princeton University
    University of Southern California)

Abstract

There is a growing gap across many measures between the one-third of the U.S. that has a B.A. degree or higher and the other two-thirds. This is most starkly evident in declining life expectancy for adults in the latter group, driven in part by deaths of despair. Deaths of despair—from overdoses, suicide, and alcoholic liver disease—have spread from non-Hispanic whites to racial minorities. Preliminary evidence suggests that the gaps have widened in the pandemic, with the more educated having much lower mortality rates and experiencing sharp increases in the value of their wealth. Reversing these trends would likely require the re-emergence of good jobs for the less educated, but with the Democratic party becoming dominated by the better-educated and the decline of unions, it is difficult to see how beneficial policies will get adopted.

Suggested Citation

  • Angus Deaton, 2022. "The great divide: education, despair, and death," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 57(4), pages 161-168, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:buseco:v:57:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1057_s11369-022-00277-0
    DOI: 10.1057/s11369-022-00277-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s11369-022-00277-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s11369-022-00277-0?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Janet Currie & Hannes Schwandt, 2021. "The Opioid Epidemic Was Not Caused by Economic Distress but by Factors That Could Be More Rapidly Addressed," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 695(1), pages 276-291, May.
    2. David Autor & David Dorn & Gordon Hanson & Kaveh Majlesi, 2020. "Importing Political Polarization? The Electoral Consequences of Rising Trade Exposure," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(10), pages 3139-3183, October.
    3. Leive, Adam A. & Ruhm, Christopher J., 2021. "Has mortality risen disproportionately for the least educated?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    4. Anne Case & Angus Deaton, 2017. "Mortality and Morbidity in the 21st Century," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 48(1 (Spring), pages 397-476.
    5. Angus Deaton, 2022. "The great divide: education, despair, and death," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 57(4), pages 161-168, October.
    6. Benjamin K. Couillard & Christopher L. Foote & Kavish Gandhi & Ellen Meara & Jonathan Skinner, 2021. "Rising Geographic Disparities in US Mortality," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 35(4), pages 123-146, Fall.
    7. Bor, J., 2017. "Diverging life expectancies and voting patterns in the 2016 US Presidential Election," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 107(10), pages 1560-1562.
    8. repec:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2017.303945_8 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Marcella Alsan & Amitabh Chandra & Kosali Simon, 2021. "The Great Unequalizer: Initial Health Effects of COVID-19 in the United States," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 35(3), pages 25-46, Summer.
    10. Casey B. Mulligan, 2020. "Deaths of Despair and the Incidence of Excess Mortality in 2020," Working Papers 2020-185, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    11. Deaton, Angus, 2018. "What do self-reports of wellbeing say about life-cycle theory and policy?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 18-25.
    12. Casey B. Mulligan, 2020. "Deaths of Despair and the Incidence of Excess Mortality in 2020," NBER Working Papers 28303, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Redondo Lourés, Cristian & Cairns, Andrew J. G., 2020. "Mortality in the US by education level," Annals of Actuarial Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(2), pages 384-419, September.
    14. Anne Case & Angus Deaton, 2021. "Life expectancy in adulthood is falling for those without a BA degree, but as educational gaps have widened, racial gaps have narrowed," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 118(11), pages 2024777118-, March.
    15. Ilyana Kuziemko & Ebonya Washington, 2018. "Why Did the Democrats Lose the South? Bringing New Data to an Old Debate," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(10), pages 2830-2867, October.
    16. Paul T E Cusack, 2020. "On Pain," Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research, Biomedical Research Network+, LLC, vol. 31(3), pages 24253-24254, October.
    17. David Autor & Claudia Goldin & Lawrence F. Katz, 2020. "Extending the Race between Education and Technology," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 110, pages 347-351, May.
    18. Cornia, Giovanni Andrea & Paniccia, Renato (ed.), 2000. "The Mortality Crisis in Transitional Economies," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198297413.
    19. Montez, J.K. & Zajacova, A., 2013. "Trends in mortality risk by education level and cause of death among US White Women from 1986 to 2006," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 103(3), pages 473-479.
    20. David M. Cutler & Edward L. Glaeser, 2021. "When Innovation Goes Wrong: Technological Regress and the Opioid Epidemic," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 35(4), pages 171-196, Fall.
    21. Ministry of Human Resource Development, GOI, 2020. "National Education Policy 2020," Working Papers id:13106, eSocialSciences.
    22. Anne Case & Angua Deaton, 2015. "Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century," Working Papers 15078.full.pdf, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Research Program in Development Studies..
    23. Anne Case & Angus Deaton, 2021. "Mortality Rates by College Degree Before and During COVID-19," NBER Working Papers 29328, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    24. David M. Cutler & Edward L. Glaeser, 2021. "When Innovation Goes Wrong: Technological Regress and the Opioid Epidemic," NBER Working Papers 28873, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    25. Anne Case & Angus Deaton & Arthur A. Stone, 2020. "Decoding the mystery of American pain reveals a warning for the future," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117(40), pages 24785-24789, 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. Samuel H. Preston & Yana C. Vierboom & Mikko Myrskylä, 2023. "Socio-behavioral factors contributing to recent mortality trends in the United States," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2023-019, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    2. Christopher P. Chambers & Siming Ye, 2023. "Haves and Have-Nots: A Theory of Economic Sufficientarianism," Papers 2301.08666, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2023.
    3. Hasan, Iftekhar & Krause, Thomas & Manfredonia, Stefano & Noth, Felix, 2022. "Banking market deregulation and mortality inequality," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 14/2022, Bank of Finland.
    4. Angus Deaton, 2022. "The great divide: education, despair, and death," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 57(4), pages 161-168, October.
    5. Anderson, Kym, 2022. "Trade-related food policies in a more volatile climate and trade environment," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    6. Enghin Atalay, 2024. "A twenty-first century of solitude? Time alone and together in the United States," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(1), pages 1-33, March.
    7. Anne Case & Angus Deaton, 2023. "Accounting for the Widening Mortality Gap Between Adult Americans with and without a BA," NBER Working Papers 31236, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Anthony R. Bardo & Jason L. Cummings, 2023. "Life, Longevity, and the Pursuit of Happiness: The Role of Disability in Shaping Racial and Sex Disparities in Living a Long and Happy Life," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(4), pages 1-26, August.
    9. Jieun Song & Sohyun Kang & Carol D. Ryff, 2023. "Unpacking Psychological Vulnerabilities in Deaths of Despair," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(15), pages 1-13, July.

    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. Bilal, Usama & Knapp, Emily & Cooper, Richard, 2017. "Swing Voting in the 2016 Presidential Election in Counties Where Midlife Mortality has been Rising in White Non-Hispanic Americans," SocArXiv jk3n4, Center for Open Science.
    2. Bilal, Usama & Knapp, Emily A. & Cooper, Richard S., 2018. "Swing voting in the 2016 presidential election in counties where midlife mortality has been rising in white non-Hispanic Americans," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 33-38.
    3. David G. Blanchflower & Carol L. Graham, 2022. "The Mid-Life Dip in Well-Being: a Critique," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 161(1), pages 287-344, May.
    4. Lleras-Muney, Adriana & Price, Joseph & Yue, Dahai, 2022. "The association between educational attainment and longevity using individual-level data from the 1940 census," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    5. Hasan, Iftekhar & Krause, Thomas & Manfredonia, Stefano & Noth, Felix, 2022. "Banking market deregulation and mortality inequality," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 14/2022, Bank of Finland.
    6. Alan Piper & David G. Blanchflower & Alex Bryson, 2021. "Does Pain Lead to Job Loss? A Panel Study for Germany," DoQSS Working Papers 21-19, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    7. Carolina Arteaga & Victoria Barone, 2023. "Democracy and The Opioid Epidemic," Working Papers tecipa-765, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    8. Anne Case & Angus Deaton, 2023. "Accounting for the Widening Mortality Gap Between Adult Americans with and without a BA," NBER Working Papers 31236, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Adriana Lleras‐Muney, 2022. "Education and income gradients in longevity: The role of policy," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(1), pages 5-37, February.
    10. Enghin Atalay, 2024. "A twenty-first century of solitude? Time alone and together in the United States," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(1), pages 1-33, March.
    11. Rohde, Nicholas & Tang, Kam Ki & D’Ambrosio, Conchita & Osberg, Lars & Rao, Prasada, 2020. "Welfare-based income insecurity in the us and germany: evidence from harmonized panel data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 226-243.
    12. Hudomiet, Péter & Hurd, Michael D. & Rohwedder, Susann, 2021. "The age profile of life satisfaction after age 65 in the U.S," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 431-442.
    13. Dobis, Elizabeth A. & Stephens, Heather M. & Skidmore, Mark & Goetz, Stephan J., 2020. "Explaining the spatial variation in American life expectancy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    14. Shannon M. Monnat, 2020. "Trends in U.S. Working-Age non-Hispanic White Mortality: Rural–Urban and Within-Rural Differences," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 39(5), pages 805-834, October.
    15. Casey B. Mulligan, 2022. "Lethal Unemployment Bonuses? Substitution and Income Effects on Substance Abuse, 2020-21," NBER Working Papers 29719, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Blanchflower, David G., 2020. "Unhappiness and age," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 461-488.
    17. Hania Rahimi-Ardabili & Xiaoqi Feng & Phi-Yen Nguyen & Thomas Astell-Burt, 2022. "Have Deaths of Despair Risen during the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-12, October.
    18. Carolina Arteaga Cabrales & Victoria Barone, 2021. "The Opioid Epidemic: Causes and Consequences," Working Papers tecipa-698, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    19. David M. Cutler & Edward L. Glaeser, 2021. "When Innovation Goes Wrong: Technological Regress and the Opioid Epidemic," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 35(4), pages 171-196, Fall.
    20. Benjamin K. Couillard & Christopher L. Foote & Kavish Gandhi & Ellen Meara & Jonathan Skinner, 2021. "Rising Geographic Disparities in US Mortality," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 35(4), pages 123-146, Fall.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Deaths of despair; B.A. degree; Education; Mortality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I0 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - General
    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:pal:buseco:v:57:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1057_s11369-022-00277-0. 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.palgrave-journals.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.