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Is it who you are or where you live? Residential segregation and racial gaps in childhood asthma

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  • Alexander, Diane
  • Currie, Janet

Abstract

Higher asthma rates are one of the more obvious ways that health inequalities between African American and other children are manifested beginning in early childhood. In 2010, black asthma rates were double non-black rates. Some but not all of this difference can be explained by factors such as a higher incidence of low birth weight (LBW) among blacks; however, even conditional on LBW, blacks have a higher incidence of asthma than others. Using a unique data set based on the health records of all children born in New Jersey between 2006 and 2010, we show that when we split the data by whether or not children live in a “black” zip code, this racial difference in the incidence of asthma among LBW children entirely disappears. All LBW children in these zip codes, regardless of race, have a higher incidence of asthma. Our results point to the importance of residential segregation and neighborhoods in explaining persistent racial health disparities.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexander, Diane & Currie, Janet, 2017. "Is it who you are or where you live? Residential segregation and racial gaps in childhood asthma," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 186-200.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:55:y:2017:i:c:p:186-200
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2017.07.003
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    2. Luiza Nassif-Pires & Laura de Lima Xavier & Thomas Masterson & Michalis Nikiforos & Fernando Rios-Avila, 2020. "Pandemic of Inequality," Economics Public Policy Brief Archive ppb_149, Levy Economics Institute.
    3. Peter Christensen & Ignacio Sarmiento-Barbieri & Christopher Timmins, 2022. "Housing Discrimination and the Toxics Exposure Gap in the United States: Evidence from the Rental Market," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(4), pages 807-818, October.
    4. Joseph Gibbons & Tse-Chuan Yang & Elizabeth Brault & Michael Barton, 2020. "Evaluating Residential Segregation’s Relation to the Clustering of Poor Health across American Cities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-18, June.
    5. Alejandro Valencia & Lisa Stillwell & Stephen Appold & Saravanan Arunachalam & Steven Cox & Hao Xu & Charles P. Schmitt & Shepherd H. Schurman & Stavros Garantziotis & William Xue & Stanley C. Ahalt &, 2020. "Translator Exposure APIs: Open Access to Data on Airborne Pollutant Exposures, Roadway Exposures, and Socio-Environmental Exposures and Use Case Application," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-13, July.
    6. Swope, Carolyn B. & Hernández, Diana, 2019. "Housing as a determinant of health equity: A conceptual model," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    7. Wichmann, Bruno & Wichmann, Roberta, 2022. "COVID-19 and Indigenous health in the Brazilian Amazon," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    8. Gillingham, Kenneth & Huang, Pei, 2021. "Racial disparities in the health effects from air pollution: Evidence from ports," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-058, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    9. Pan, Siyu, 2023. "Health, air pollution, and location choice," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    10. Enrico Berkes & Ruben Gaetani, 2023. "Income Segregation and the Rise of the Knowledge Economy," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 69-102, April.
    11. Duque, Valentina & Gilraine, Michael, 2020. "Coal Use and Student Performance," Working Papers 2020-07, University of Sydney, School of Economics.
    12. Gazze, Ludovica & Persico, Claudia L. & Spirovska, Sandra, 2020. "The Spillover Effects of Pollution: How Exposure to Lead Affects Everyone in the Classroom," IZA Discussion Papers 13133, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Lisa A. Gennetian & Christopher Rodrigues, 2021. "Mothers’ and Fathers’ Time Spent with Children in the U.S.: Variations by Race/Ethnicity Within Income from 2003 to 2013," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 34-46, March.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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