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The Shared Non-cognitive Roots of Health and Socioeconomic Status: Evidence from the US

Author

Listed:
  • Alessandro Bucciol

    (Department of Economics (University of Verona))

  • Chiara Coriele

    (Department of Economics (University of Verona))

  • Luca Zarri

    (Department of Economics (University of Verona))

Abstract

A voluminous literature established a strong relationship between subjective health and socioeconomic status measures. We test the idea that self-reported health and subjective socioeconomic status have “shared non-cognitive roots”, i.e., that the same personality traits significantly affect both status variables, even after controlling for the complex relationships involving objective and subjective measures across the two domains. To this aim, we estimate a bivariate model based on longitudinal large-scale data (30,675 observations) from six waves (2006-2016) of the US Health and Retirement Study. Our findings strongly support our conjecture, as all the “Big Five” traits are significantly related to self-reported health and subjective socioeconomic status with the same sign, even after controlling for both objective measures and once the other subjective measure is considered. These results point to a novel, direct channel through which non-cognitive factors similarly influence self-evaluations across distinct, though strongly intertwined, domains.

Suggested Citation

  • Alessandro Bucciol & Chiara Coriele & Luca Zarri, 2020. "The Shared Non-cognitive Roots of Health and Socioeconomic Status: Evidence from the US," Working Papers 14/2020, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ver:wpaper:14/2020
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher F Baum & Arthur Lewbel, 2019. "Advice on using heteroskedasticity-based identification," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 19(4), pages 757-767, December.
    2. James Poterba & Steven Venti & David A. Wise, 2013. "Health, Education, and the Postretirement Evolution of Household Assets," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 7(4), pages 297-339.
    3. Bucciol, Alessandro & Cavasso, Barbara & Zarri, Luca, 2015. "Social status and personality traits," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 245-260.
    4. Arthur Lewbel, 2012. "Using Heteroscedasticity to Identify and Estimate Mismeasured and Endogenous Regressor Models," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(1), pages 67-80.
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

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