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Mortality, Inequality and Race in American Cities and States

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  • Angus Deaton
  • Darren Lubotsky

Abstract

A number of studies have found that mortality rates are positively correlated with income inequality across the cities and states of the US. We argue that this correlation is confounded by the effects of racial composition. Across states and MSAs, the fraction of the population that is black is positively correlated with average white incomes, and negatively correlated with average black incomes. Between-group income inequality is therefore higher where the fraction black is higher, as is income inequality in general. Conditional on the fraction black, neither city nor state mortality rates are correlated with income inequality. Mortality rates are higher where the fraction black is higher, not only because of the mechanical effect of higher black mortality rates and lower black incomes, but because white mortality rates are higher in places where the fraction black is higher. This result is present within census regions, and for all age groups and both sexes (except for boys aged 1 9). It is robust to conditioning on income, education, and (in the MSA results) on state fixed effects, and cannot plausibly be attributed to variations in the local provision of health care.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 8370.

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Date of creation: Jul 2001
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:8370

Note: AG CH HC
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  1. Jennifer M. Mellor & Jeffrey Milyo, 1999. "Re-Examining the Evidence of an Ecological Association between Income Inequality and Health," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 9922, Department of Economics, Tufts University.
  2. Miller, Douglas L. & Paxson, Christina, 2006. "Relative income, race, and mortality," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 979-1003, September.
  3. Christopher J. Ruhm, 2000. "Are Recessions Good For Your Health?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 115(2), pages 617-650, May.
  4. Alberto Alesina & Reza Baqir & William Easterly, 1997. "Public Goods and Ethnic Divisions," NBER Working Papers 6009, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  5. David A. Jaeger & Susanna Loeb & Sarah E. Turner & John Bound, 1998. "Coding Geographic Areas Across Census Years: Creating Consistent Definitions of Metropolitan Areas," NBER Working Papers 6772, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. Wilkinson and Pickett misrepresent research again
    by Tino in Super-Economy on 2010-07-12 12:46:00
  2. Does Income Inequality Cause Poor Health?
    by Brendan Saloner in inequalities on 2011-08-11 00:23:17
  3. Nicholas Kristof makes a fool of the New York Times
    by Tino in Super-Economy on 2011-01-03 05:42:00
  4. Spirit Level loses more credibility
    by Tino in Super-Economy on 2010-02-26 07:12:00
  5. The Spirit Level dishonest about the state of research
    by Tino in Super-Economy on 2010-02-23 18:29:00
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