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Health Improvements Impact Income Inequality

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  • Rainer Franz Kotschy

Abstract

This paper investigates whether and to what extent long-run trends in population health affected income inequality in the United States over the period 1960-2000. To isolate exogenous variation in health over time, the analysis exploits the sharp decline in cardiovascular disease mortality across states that originated from medical advances in the treatment and prevention of these diseases after 1960. The results demonstrate that health improvements contributed to rising income inequality through mechanisms related to education.

Suggested Citation

  • Rainer Franz Kotschy, 2021. "Health Improvements Impact Income Inequality," CESifo Working Paper Series 9429, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9429
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    population health; aging; Gini coefficient; skill-biased technical change;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts

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