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Covid-19: Testing Inequality in New York City

Author

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  • Schmitt-Grohé, Stephanie
  • Uribe, Martín
  • Teoh, Ken

Abstract

Motivated by reports in the media suggesting unequal access to Covid-19 testing across incomes, we analyze zip-code level data on the number of Covid-19 tests, test results, and income per capita in New York City. We find that the number of tests administered is evenly distributed across income levels. In particular, the test distribution across income levels is significantly more egalitarian than the distribution of income itself: The ten percent of the city's population living in the richest zip codes received 11 percent of the Covid-19 tests and 29 percent of the city's income. The ten percent of the city's population living in the poorest zip codes received 10 percent of the tests but only 4 percent of the city's income. At the same time, we find significant disparity in the fraction of tests that come back negative for the Covid-19 disease across income levels: moving from the poorest zip codes to the richest zip codes is associated with an increase in the fraction of negative Covid-19 test results from 38 to 65 percent.

Suggested Citation

  • Schmitt-Grohé, Stephanie & Uribe, Martín & Teoh, Ken, 2020. "Covid-19: Testing Inequality in New York City," CEPR Discussion Papers 14673, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14673
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    Cited by:

    1. Joseph Benitez & Charles Courtemanche & Aaron Yelowitz, 2020. "Racial and Ethnic Disparities in COVID-19: Evidence from Six Large Cities," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 3(4), pages 243-261, December.
    2. Graziella Bertocchi & Arcangelo Dimico, 2020. "COVID-19, Race, and Redlining," Department of Economics 0175, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    3. Bertocchi, Graziella & Dimico, Arcangelo, 2020. "COVID-19, Race, and Redlining," GLO Discussion Paper Series 603, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    4. Rebecca Brough & Matthew Freedman & David C. Phillips, 2021. "Understanding socioeconomic disparities in travel behavior during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 753-774, September.
    5. Mounir Amdaoud & Giuseppe Arcuri & Nadine Levratto, 2021. "Are regions equal in adversity? A spatial analysis of spread and dynamics of COVID-19 in Europe," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 22(4), pages 629-642, June.
    6. Rachid Laajaj & Duncan Webb & Danilo Aristizabal & Eduardo Behrentz & Raquel Bernal & Giancarlo Buitrago & Zulma Cucunubá & Fernando de la Hoz, 2021. "Understanding how socioeconomic inequalities drive inequalities in SARS-CoV-2 infections," Documentos CEDE 19241, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    7. Mangrum, Daniel & Niekamp, Paul, 2022. "JUE Insight: College student travel contributed to local COVID-19 spread," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    8. Davide Furceri & Prakash Loungani & Jonathan D Ostry & Pietro Pizzuto, 2021. "The rise in inequality after pandemics: can fiscal support play a mitigating role? [Epidemics, inequality, and poverty in preindustrial and early industrial time]," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 30(2), pages 445-457.
    9. Almagro, Milena & Coven, Joshua & Gupta, Arpit & Orane-Hutchinson, Angelo, 2023. "Disparities in COVID-19 risk exposure: Evidence from geolocation data," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    10. Abadía Alvarado, Luz Karime & Gómez Soler, Silvia C. & Cifuentes González, Juanita, 2023. "Gone with the pandemic: How did Covid-19 affect the academic performance of Colombian students?," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    11. L'aszl'o Czaller & GergH{o} T'oth & Bal'azs Lengyel, 2021. "Vaccine allocation to blue-collar workers," Papers 2104.04639, arXiv.org.
    12. Milena Almagro & Joshua Coven & Arpit Gupta & Angelo Orane-Hutchinson, 2020. "Racial Disparities in Frontline Workers and Housing Crowding during COVID-19: Evidence from Geolocation Data," Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute Working Papers 37, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    13. Almagro, Milena & Orane-Hutchinson, Angelo, 2022. "JUE Insight: The determinants of the differential exposure to COVID-19 in New York city and their evolution over time," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    14. Bárcena-Martín, Elena & Molina, Julián & Muñoz-Fernández, Ana & Pérez-Moreno, Salvador, 2022. "Vulnerability and COVID-19 infection rates: A changing relationship during the first year of the pandemic," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    15. Bhattacharya, Joydeep & Chakraborty, Shankha & Yu, Xiumei, 2021. "A rational-choice model of Covid-19 transmission with endogenous quarantining and two-sided prevention," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    16. Yuval Arbel & Chaim Fialkoff & Amichai Kerner & Miryam Kerner, 2022. "Do population density, socio-economic ranking and Gini Index of cities influence infection rates from coronavirus? Israel as a case study," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 68(1), pages 181-206, February.
    17. Jose Cuesta & Julieth Pico, 2020. "The Gendered Poverty Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Colombia," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 32(5), pages 1558-1591, December.
    18. Annie Tubadji & Don J. Webber & Frédéric Boy, 2021. "Cultural and economic discrimination by the Great Leveller," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(S1), pages 198-216, November.
    19. Shibata, Ippei, 2021. "The distributional impact of recessions: The global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic recession," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    20. Adham Sayed & Bin Peng, 2021. "Pandemics and income inequality: a historical review," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(4), pages 1-17, April.
    21. Jung, Juergen & Manley, James & Shrestha, Vinish, 2021. "Coronavirus infections and deaths by poverty status: The effects of social distancing," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 311-330.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Inequality; Covid-19 testing; Coronavirus; Income distribution; Health; Lorenz curves; Gini coefficient;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • R1 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics

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