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Does early-life income inequality predict self-reported health in later life? Evidence from the United States

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  • Lillard, Dean R.
  • Burkhauser, Richard V.
  • Hahn, Markus H.
  • Wilkins, Roger

Abstract

We investigate the association between adult health and the income inequality they experienced as children up to 80 years earlier. Our inequality data track shares of national income held by top percentiles from 1913 to 2009. We average those data over the same early-life years and merge them to individual data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics data for 1984–2009. Controlling for demographic and economic factors, we find both men and women are statistically more likely to report poorer health if income was more unequally distributed during the first years of their lives. The association is robust to alternative specifications of income inequality and time trends and remains significant even when we control for differences in overall childhood health. Our results constitute prima facie evidence that adults' health may be adversely affected by the income inequality they experienced as children.

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  • Lillard, Dean R. & Burkhauser, Richard V. & Hahn, Markus H. & Wilkins, Roger, 2015. "Does early-life income inequality predict self-reported health in later life? Evidence from the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 347-355.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:128:y:2015:i:c:p:347-355
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.12.026
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    2. Burkhauser, Richard V. & De Neve, Jan-Emmanuel & Powdthavee, Nattavudh, 2016. "Top Incomes and Human Well-being Around the World," IZA Discussion Papers 9677, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Elgar, Frank J. & Gariépy, Geneviève & Torsheim, Torbjørn & Currie, Candace, 2017. "Early-life income inequality and adolescent health and well-being," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 197-208.
    4. Douglas A. Wolf, 2018. "Uses of Panel Study of Income Dynamics Data in Research on Aging," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 680(1), pages 193-212, November.
    5. Maskileyson, Dina, 2019. "Health trajectories of immigrants in the United States: Does income inequality of country of origin matter?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 246-255.
    6. Kawachi, Ichiro & Subramanian, S.V., 2018. "Social epidemiology for the 21st century," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 240-245.
    7. Brady, David & Guerra, Christian & Kohler, Ulrich & Link, Bruce, 2021. "The Long Arm of Prospective Childhood Income for Mature Adult Health in the U.S," SocArXiv gwkma, Center for Open Science.
    8. Brady, David & Guerra, Christian & Kohler, Ulrich & Link, Bruce, 2022. "The Long Arm of Prospective Childhood Income for Mature Adult Health in the United States," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 63(4), pages 543-559.
    9. Powdthavee, Nattavudh & Burkhauser, Richard V. & De Neve, Jan-Emmanuel, 2017. "Top incomes and human well-being: Evidence from the Gallup World Poll," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 246-257.
    10. Noghanibehambari, Hamid & Engelman, Michal, 2022. "Social insurance programs and later-life mortality: Evidence from new deal relief spending," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    11. Zheng, Hui & Choi, Yoonyoung & Dirlam, Jonathan & George, Linda, 2022. "Rising childhood income inequality and declining Americans’ health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 303(C).

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