IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp17147.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Place of Birth and Cognitive Function among Older Americans: Findings from the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol

Author

Listed:
  • Lin, Zhuoer

    (University of Illinois at Chicago)

  • Chen, Xi

    (Yale University)

Abstract

Growing evidence suggests that place of birth (PoB) and related circumstances may have long- lasting and multiplicative contributions to various later-life outcomes. This study investigates the extent to which PoB contributes to a wide range of domains of later-life cognitive function. Leveraging a nationally representative sample of older Americans from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), cognitive function is assessed in Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP). Regression-based Shapley decompositions are employed to quantify the contribution of PoB. We show that PoB significantly contributes to all assessed cognitive domains including memory, executive function, language and fluency, visuospatial function, orientation, and general cognitive function. Geographic disparities in cognitive function are evident across PoB, with individuals born in US southern states and foreign-born individuals performing worse than those born in other states. Overall, state of birth accounts for 2.2-9.7% of the total variance in cognition after controlling for age, sex, and race/ethnicity, which declines to 2.0-7.0% after further controlling for comprehensive socioeconomic and health factors over the life course, and are robust to the control of current state of residence. Addressing these disparities requires more equalized place-based policies, resources, and early-life environments to promote health equity over the life course.

Suggested Citation

  • Lin, Zhuoer & Chen, Xi, 2024. "Place of Birth and Cognitive Function among Older Americans: Findings from the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol," IZA Discussion Papers 17147, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17147
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp17147.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Komro, K.A. & Livingston, M.D. & Markowitz, S. & Wagenaar, A.C., 2016. "The effect of an increased minimum wage on infant mortality and birth weight," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 106(8), pages 1514-1516.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Averett, Susan L. & Smith, Julie K. & Wang, Yang, 2019. "Minimum Wages and the Health and Access to Care of Immigrants' Children," IZA Discussion Papers 12606, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Cooper, Kerris & Stewart, Kitty, 2020. "Does household income affect children’s outcomes? A systematic review of the evidence," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 107029, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Cooper, Kerris & Stewart, Kitty, 2017. "Does Money Affect Children’s Outcomes? An update," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103494, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Lucas Hafner & Benjamin Lochner, 2022. "Do minimum wages improve self-rated health? Evidence from a natural experiment," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(6), pages 2989-3014, June.
    5. Nicholas A. Ashford & Ralph P. Hall & Johan Arango-Quiroga & Kyriakos A. Metaxas & Amy L. Showalter, 2020. "Addressing Inequality: The First Step Beyond COVID-19 and Towards Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-43, July.
    6. George L. Wehby & Robert Kaestner & Wei Lyu & Dhaval M. Dave, 2022. "Effects of the Minimum Wage on Child Health," American Journal of Health Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(3), pages 412-448.
    7. George L. Wehby & Dhaval M. Dave & Robert Kaestner, 2020. "Effects of the Minimum Wage on Infant Health," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(2), pages 411-443, March.
    8. Michael Reich, 2021. "The Economics Of A $15 Federal Minimum Wage By 2025," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(4), pages 1297-1305, September.
    9. Jennifer Karas Montez & Anna Zajacova & Mark D. Hayward & Steven H. Woolf & Derek Chapman & Jason Beckfield, 2019. "Educational Disparities in Adult Mortality Across U.S. States: How Do They Differ, and Have They Changed Since the Mid-1980s?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(2), pages 621-644, April.
    10. Elena Andreyeva & Benjamin Ukert, 2018. "The impact of the minimum wage on health," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 337-375, December.
    11. Hafner, Lucas, 2019. "Do minimum wages improve self-rated health? Evidence from a natural experiment," FAU Discussion Papers in Economics 02/2019, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute for Economics.
    12. Mouctar Sow & Myriam De Spiegelaere & Marie-France Raynault, 2021. "Risk of Low Birth Weight According to Household Composition in Brussels and Montreal: Do Income Support Policies Variations Explain the Differences Observed between Both Regions?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-16, July.
    13. Richard Gearhart & Lyudmyla Sonchak-Ardan & Raphael Thibault, 2023. "The impact of minimum wage on parental time allocation to children: evidence from the American Time Use Survey," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 1019-1042, September.
    14. Kerris Cooper & Kitty Stewart, 2021. "Does Household Income Affect children’s Outcomes? A Systematic Review of the Evidence," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(3), pages 981-1005, June.
    15. Otto Lenhart, 2017. "The impact of minimum wages on population health: evidence from 24 OECD countries," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 18(8), pages 1031-1039, November.
    16. David R. Williams & Lisa A. Cooper, 2019. "Reducing Racial Inequities in Health: Using What We Already Know to Take Action," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-26, February.
    17. Megan M. Reynolds & Patricia A. Homan, 2023. "Income Support Policy Packages and Birth Outcomes in U.S. States: An Ecological Analysis," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(4), pages 1-24, August.
    18. Umedjon Ibragimov & Stephanie Beane & Samuel R Friedman & Kelli Komro & Adaora A Adimora & Jessie K Edwards & Leslie D Williams & Barbara Tempalski & Melvin D Livingston & Ronald D Stall & Gina M Wing, 2019. "States with higher minimum wages have lower STI rates among women: Results of an ecological study of 66 US metropolitan areas, 2003-2015," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(10), pages 1-18, October.
    19. Robert Ammerman & Anne Duggan & John List & Lauren Supplee & Dana Suskind, 2021. "The role of open science practices in scaling evidence-based prevention programs," Natural Field Experiments 00741, The Field Experiments Website.
    20. William Schneider & Lindsey Rose Bullinger & Kerri M. Raissian, 2022. "How does the minimum wage affect child maltreatment and parenting behaviors? An analysis of the mechanisms," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 1119-1154, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    early-life circumstances; life course; cognitive domains; health equity; geographic disparities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:iza:izadps:dp17147. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    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.