IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v61y2005i5p907-919.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Income inequality and adult nutritional status: Anthropometric evidence from a pre-industrial society in the Bolivian Amazon

Author

Listed:
  • Godoy, Ricardo
  • Byron, Elizabeth
  • Reyes-García, Victoria
  • Vadez, Vincent
  • Leonard, William R.
  • Apaza, Lilian
  • Huanca, Tomás
  • Pérez, Eddy
  • Wilkie, David

Abstract

Evidence has been accumulated about the adverse effects of income inequality on individual health in industrial nations, but we know less about its effect in small-scale, pre-industrial rural societies. Income inequality should have modest effects on individual health. First, norms of sharing and reciprocity should reduce the adverse effects of income inequality on individual health. Second, with sharing and reciprocity, personal income will spill over to the rest of the community, attenuating the protective role of individual income on individual health found in industrial nations. We test these ideas with data from Tsimane' Amerindians, a foraging and farming society in the Bolivian Amazon. Subjects included 479 household heads (13+ years of age) from 58 villages. Dependent variables included anthropometric indices of short-run nutritional status (body-mass index (BMI), and age- and sex-standardized z-scores of mid-arm muscle area and skinfolds). Proxies for income included area deforested per person the previous year and earnings per person in the last 2 weeks. Village income inequality was measured with the Gini coefficient. Income inequality did not correlate with anthropometric indices, most likely because of negative indirect effects from the omission of social-capital variables, which would lower the estimated impact of income inequality on health. The link between BMI and income and between skinfolds and income resembled a U and an inverted U; income did not correlate with mid-arm muscle area. The use of an experimental research design might allow for better estimates of how income inequality affects social capital and individual health.

Suggested Citation

  • Godoy, Ricardo & Byron, Elizabeth & Reyes-García, Victoria & Vadez, Vincent & Leonard, William R. & Apaza, Lilian & Huanca, Tomás & Pérez, Eddy & Wilkie, David, 2005. "Income inequality and adult nutritional status: Anthropometric evidence from a pre-industrial society in the Bolivian Amazon," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 907-919, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:61:y:2005:i:5:p:907-919
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(05)00042-0
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Angus Deaton, 2003. "Health, Inequality, and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(1), pages 113-158, March.
    2. Angus S. Deaton & Christina Paxson, 2001. "Mortality, Education, Income, and Inequality among American Cohorts," NBER Chapters, in: Themes in the Economics of Aging, pages 129-170, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. LeClere, F.B. & Soobader, M.-J., 2000. "The effect of income inequality on the health of selected US demographic groups," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 90(12), pages 1892-1897.
    4. Michael Gurven, 2004. "Economic Games Among the Amazonian Tsimane: Exploring the Roles of Market Access, Costs of Giving, and Cooperation on Pro-Social Game Behavior," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 7(1), pages 5-24, February.
    5. Deaton, Angus & Lubotsky, Darren, 2003. "Mortality, inequality and race in American cities and states," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(6), pages 1139-1153, March.
    6. Jennifer M. Mellor & Jeffrey D. Milyo, 2001. "Income inequality and health," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(1), pages 151-155.
    7. Edward L. Glaeser & David I. Laibson & José A. Scheinkman & Christine L. Soutter, 2000. "Measuring Trust," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 811-846.
      • Glaeser, Edward Ludwig & Laibson, David I. & Scheinkman, Jose A. & Soutter, Christine L., 2000. "Measuring Trust," Scholarly Articles 4481497, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    8. Jennifer M. Mellor & Jeffrey Milyo, 2002. "Income Inequality and Health Status in the United States: Evidence from the Current Population Survey," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 37(3), pages 510-539.
    9. repec:pri:cheawb:deaton_paxson_mortality_cohorts is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Marc Jacobson & Joel De Castro & Vianca Aliaga & Julio Romero & MAllison Davis, 1998. "The Role of Tenure Security and Private Time Preference in Neotropical Deforestation," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 74(2), pages 162-170.
    11. Coburn, David, 2000. "Income inequality, social cohesion and the health status of populations: the role of neo-liberalism," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 135-146, July.
    12. Wilkinson, R.G., 1997. "Comment: income, inequality, and social cohesion," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 87(9), pages 1504-1506.
    13. Kawachi, I. & Kennedy, B.P. & Lochner, K. & Prothrow-Stith, D., 1997. "Social capital, income inequality, and mortality," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 87(9), pages 1491-1498.
    14. He, Qiang & Gray, H. Peter, 2001. "Multinational banking and economic development: a case study," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 233-243.
    15. repec:pri:cheawb:deaton_paxson_mortality_cohorts.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Godoy, R. & Overman, H. & Demmer, J. & Apaza, L. & Byron, E. & Huanca, T. & Leonard, W. & Perez, E. & Reyes-Garcia, V. & Vadez, V., 2002. "Local financial benefits of rain forests: comparative evidence from Amerindian societies in Bolivia and Honduras," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 397-409, March.
    17. McDonough, P. & Duncan, G.J. & Williams, D. & House, J., 1997. "Income dynamics and adult mortality in the United States, 1972 through 1989," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 87(9), pages 1476-1483.
    18. Hak Choi & Hongyi Li, 2001. "Economic development and growth convergence in China," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 37-54.
    19. Kawachi, Ichiro & Kennedy, Bruce P., 1997. "The relationship of income inequality to mortality: Does the choice of indicator matter?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 45(7), pages 1121-1127, October.
    20. Egolf, B. & Lasker, J. & Wolf, S. & Potvin, L., 1992. "The Roseto effect: A 50-year comparison of mortality rates," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 82(8), pages 1089-1092.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bussalleu, Alejandra & King, Nia & Pizango, Pedro & Ford, James & Carcamo, Cesar P. & Harper, Sherilee L., 2021. "Nuya kankantawa (we are feeling healthy): Understandings of health and wellbeing among Shawi of the Peruvian Amazon," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    2. Robert Innes & George Frisvold, 2009. "The Economics of Endangered Species," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 485-512, September.
    3. Valeggia, Claudia R. & Burke, Kevin M. & Fernandez-Duque, Eduardo, 2010. "Nutritional status and socioeconomic change among Toba and Wichí populations of the Argentinean Chaco," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 100-110, March.
    4. Godoy, Ricardo A. & Patel, Ankur & Reyes-García, Victoria & Seyfried, Craig Jr. & Leonard, William R. & McDade, Thomas & Tanner, Susan & Vadez, Vincent, 2006. "Nutritional status and spousal empowerment among native Amazonians," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 1517-1530, September.
    5. Reyes-García, Victoria & McDade, Thomas W. & Molina, Jose Luis & Leonard, William R. & Tanner, Susan N. & Huanca, Tomas & Godoy, Ricardo, 2008. "Social rank and adult male nutritional status: Evidence of the social gradient in health from a foraging-farming society," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(12), pages 2107-2115, December.
    6. Godoy, Ricardo A. & Reyes-García, Victoria & McDade, Thomas & Huanca, Tomás & Leonard, William R. & Tanner, Susan & Vadez, Vincent, 2006. "Does village inequality in modern income harm the psyche? Anger, fear, sadness, and alcohol consumption in a pre-industrial society," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 359-372, July.
    7. Reyes-García, Victoria & Molina, Jose Luis & McDade, Thomas W. & Tanner, Susan N. & Huanca, Tomas & Leonard, William R., 2009. "Inequality in social rank and adult nutritional status: Evidence from a small-scale society in the Bolivian Amazon," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 571-578, August.
    8. Godoy, Ricardo & Zeinalova, Elizabeth & Reyes-García, Victoria & Huanca, Tomás & Kosiewicz, Holly & Leonard, William R. & Tanner, Susan, 2010. "Does civilization cause discontentment among indigenous Amazonians? Test of empirical data from the Tsimane' of Bolivia," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 587-598, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Angus Deaton, 2003. "Health, Inequality, and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(1), pages 113-158, March.
    2. Jennifer M. Mellor & Jeffrey Milyo, 2002. "Income Inequality and Health Status in the United States: Evidence from the Current Population Survey," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 37(3), pages 510-539.
    3. Yang, Tse-Chuan & Chen, Vivian Yi-Ju & Shoff, Carla & Matthews, Stephen A., 2012. "Using quantile regression to examine the effects of inequality across the mortality distribution in the U.S. counties," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(12), pages 1900-1910.
    4. Li, Hongbin & Zhu, Yi, 2006. "Income, income inequality, and health: Evidence from China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 668-693, December.
    5. Ken Judge & Iain Paterson, 2001. "Poverty, Income Inequality and Health," Treasury Working Paper Series 01/29, New Zealand Treasury.
    6. Grönqvist, Hans & Johansson, Per & Niknami, Susan, 2012. "Income inequality and health: Lessons from a refugee residential assignment program," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 617-629.
    7. Wilkinson, Richard G & Pickett, Kate E., 2006. "Income inequality and population health: A review and explanation of the evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(7), pages 1768-1784, April.
    8. Maite Blázquez Cuesta & Elena Cottini & Herrarte, A. (Ainhoa), 2012. "GINI DP 39: Socioeconomic Gradient in Health: How Important is Material Deprivation?," GINI Discussion Papers 39, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    9. Vincent Hildebrand & Philippe Kerm, 2009. "Income inequality and self-rated health status: Evidence from the european community household panel," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 46(4), pages 805-825, November.
    10. Herzer, Dierk & Nunnenkamp, Peter, 2015. "Income inequality and health: Evidence from developed and developing countries," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 9, pages 1-56.
    11. Chen, Zhuo & Gotway Crawford, Carol A., 2012. "The role of geographic scale in testing the income inequality hypothesis as an explanation of health disparities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(6), pages 1022-1031.
    12. Owen O'Donnell & Eddy Van Doorslaer & Tom Van Ourti, 2013. "Health and Inequality," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-170/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    13. B. d'Hombres & L. Rocco & M. Suhrcke & M. McKee, 2010. "Does social capital determine health? Evidence from eight transition countries," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(1), pages 56-74, January.
    14. 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.
    15. Nicole Grunewald & Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso, 2014. "Green Growth in Mexico, Brazil and Chile: Policy strategies and future prospects," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 229, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    16. Miller, Douglas L. & Paxson, Christina, 2006. "Relative income, race, and mortality," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 979-1003, September.
    17. Tse-Chuan Yang & Leif Jensen, 2015. "Exploring the Inequality-Mortality Relationship in the US with Bayesian Spatial Modeling," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 34(3), pages 437-460, June.
    18. repec:pri:cheawb:eibner_evans is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Pham-Kanter, Genevieve, 2009. "Social comparisons and health: Can having richer friends and neighbors make you sick?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 335-344, August.
    20. Mary C. Daly & Daniel J. Wilson, 2013. "Inequality and Mortality: New Evidence from U.S. County Panel Data," Working Paper Series 2013-13, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    21. Godoy, Ricardo & Reyes-Garcia, Victoria & Vadez, Vincent & Leonard, William R. & Huanca, Tomas & Bauchet, Jonathan, 2005. "Human capital, wealth, and nutrition in the Bolivian Amazon," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 139-162, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:61:y:2005:i:5:p:907-919. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.