IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/glodps/594.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Childhood Circumstances and Health Inequality in Old Age: Comparative Evidence from China and the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Chen, Xi
  • Yan, Binjian
  • Gill, Thomas M.

Abstract

This paper estimates the extent to which childhood circumstances contribute to health inequality in old age and evaluates the importance of major domains of childhood circumstances to health inequalities in the USA and China. We link two waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) in 2013 and 2015 with the newly released 2014 Life History Survey (LHS), and two waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) in 2014 and 2016 with the newly released 2015 Life History Mail Survey (LHMS) in the USA, to quantify health inequality due to childhood circumstances for which they have little control. Using the Shapley value decomposition approach, we show that childhood circumstances may explain 7-16 percent and 14-30 percent of health inequality in old age in China and the USA, respectively. Specifically, the contribution of childhood circumstances to health inequality is larger in the USA than in China for self-rated health, mental health, and physical health. Examining domains of childhood circumstance, regional and rural/urban status contribute more to health inequality in China, while family socioeconomic status (SES) contributes more to health inequality in the USA. Our findings support the value of a life course approach in identifying the key determinants of health in old age. Distinguishing sources of health inequality and rectifying inequality due to early childhood circumstances should be the basis of policy promoting health equity.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Xi & Yan, Binjian & Gill, Thomas M., 2020. "Childhood Circumstances and Health Inequality in Old Age: Comparative Evidence from China and the United States," GLO Discussion Paper Series 594, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:594
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/222236/1/GLO-DP-0594.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ravi Kanbur & Adam Wagstaff, 2016. "How Useful Is Inequality of Opportunity as a Policy Construct?," International Economic Association Series, in: Kaushik Basu & Joseph E. Stiglitz (ed.), Inequality and Growth: Patterns and Policy, chapter 4, pages 131-150, Palgrave Macmillan.
    2. Vincenzo Carrieri & Andrew M. Jones, 2018. "Inequality of opportunity in health: A decomposition‐based approach," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(12), pages 1981-1995, December.
    3. John Strauss & Firman Witoelar & Qinqin Meng & Xinxin Chen & Yaohui Zhao & Bondan Sikoki & Yafeng Wang, 2018. "Cognition and SES Relationships Among the Mid-Aged and Elderly: A Comparison of China and Indonesia," NBER Working Papers 24583, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. James Smith, 2009. "Reconstructing childhood health histories," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 46(2), pages 387-403, May.
    5. Rasmus Landersø & James J. Heckman, 2017. "The Scandinavian Fantasy: Sources of Intergenerational Mobility in Denmark and the US," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 119(1), pages 178-230, January.
    6. Florence Jusot & Sandy Tubeuf & Alain Trannoy, 2013. "Circumstances And Efforts: How Important Is Their Correlation For The Measurement Of Inequality Of Opportunity In Health?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(12), pages 1470-1495, December.
    7. Douglas Almond & Janet Currie & Valentina Duque, 2018. "Childhood Circumstances and Adult Outcomes: Act II," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(4), pages 1360-1446, December.
    8. Judith Niehues & Andreas Peichl, 2014. "Upper bounds of inequality of opportunity: theory and evidence for Germany and the US," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 43(1), pages 73-99, June.
    9. Miles Corak, 2013. "Income Inequality, Equality of Opportunity, and Intergenerational Mobility," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(3), pages 79-102, Summer.
    10. Francesco Andreoli & Tarjei Havnes & Arnaud Lefranc, 2019. "Robust Inequality of Opportunity Comparisons: Theory and Application to Early Childhood Policy Evaluation," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(2), pages 355-369, May.
    11. John E. Roemer, 2002. "Equality of opportunity: A progress report," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 19(2), pages 455-471.
    12. Adam Isen & Maya Rossin-Slater & W. Reed Walker, 2017. "Every Breath You Take—Every Dollar You’ll Make: The Long-Term Consequences of the Clean Air Act of 1970," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 125(3), pages 848-902.
    13. Petra Persson & Maya Rossin-Slater, 2018. "Family Ruptures, Stress, and the Mental Health of the Next Generation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(4-5), pages 1214-1252, April.
    14. J. Peter Nilsson, 2017. "Alcohol Availability, Prenatal Conditions, and Long-Term Economic Outcomes," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 125(4), pages 1149-1207.
    15. Paul Hufe & Andreas Peichl & John Roemer & Martin Ungerer, 2017. "Inequality of income acquisition: the role of childhood circumstances," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 49(3), pages 499-544, December.
    16. Zhang, Xiaobo & Kanbur, Ravi, 2005. "Spatial inequality in education and health care in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 189-204.
    17. Achyuta Adhvaryu & James Fenske & Anant Nyshadham, 2019. "Early Life Circumstance and Adult Mental Health," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(4), pages 1516-1549.
    18. Zeng Yi & Danan Gu & Kenneth Land, 2007. "The association of childhood socioeconomic conditions with healthy longevity at the oldest-old ages in China," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 44(3), pages 497-518, August.
    19. Venkataramani, Atheendar S., 2012. "Early life exposure to malaria and cognition in adulthood: Evidence from Mexico," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 767-780.
    20. Shen, Yuying, 2014. "Community building and mental health in mid-life and older life: Evidence from China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 209-216.
    21. Ko, Pei-Chun & Yeung, Wei-Jun Jean, 2019. "Childhood conditions and productive aging in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 229(C), pages 60-69.
    22. repec:dau:papers:123456789/5065 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Arnaud Lefranc & Nicolas Pistolesi & Alain Trannoy, 2008. "Inequality Of Opportunities Vs. Inequality Of Outcomes: Are Western Societies All Alike?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 54(4), pages 513-546, December.
    24. Case, Anne & Fertig, Angela & Paxson, Christina, 2005. "The lasting impact of childhood health and circumstance," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 365-389, March.
    25. Espen Bratberg & Jonathan Davis & Bhashkar Mazumder & Martin Nybom & Daniel D. Schnitzlein & Kjell Vaage, 2017. "A Comparison of Intergenerational Mobility Curves in Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the US," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 119(1), pages 72-101, January.
    26. Douglas Almond & Bhashkar Mazumder, 2011. "Health Capital and the Prenatal Environment: The Effect of Ramadan Observance during Pregnancy," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(4), pages 56-85, October.
    27. Dahl, Espen & Birkelund, Gunn Elisabeth, 1997. "Health inequalities in later life in a social democratic welfare state," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 44(6), pages 871-881, March.
    28. Dennis Tao Yang, 1999. "Urban-Biased Policies and Rising Income Inequality in China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 306-310, May.
    29. Shorrocks, A F, 1980. "The Class of Additively Decomposable Inequality Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(3), pages 613-625, April.
    30. Zhenmei Zhang & Danan Gu & Mark D. Hayward, 2008. "Early Life Influences on Cognitive Impairment Among Oldest Old Chinese," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 63(1), pages 25-33.
    31. John E. Roemer & Alain Trannoy, 2016. "Equality of Opportunity: Theory and Measurement," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(4), pages 1288-1332, December.
    32. David A. Wise, 2014. "Discoveries in the Economics of Aging," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number wise13-1.
    33. Till Stowasser & Florian Heiss & Daniel McFadden & Joachim Winter, 2014. "Understanding the SES Gradient in Health Among the Elderly: The Role of Childhood Circumstances," NBER Chapters, in: Discoveries in the Economics of Aging, pages 187-219, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    34. Paolo Brunori & Paul Hufe & Daniel Gerszon Mahler, 2017. "The Roots of Inequality: Estimating Inequality of Opportunity from Regression Trees," Working Papers - Economics wp2017_18.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    35. Alain Trannoy & Sandy Tubeuf & Florence Jusot & Marion Devaux, 2010. "Inequality of opportunities in health in France: a first pass," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(8), pages 921-938, August.
    36. Zhang, Yingqiang & Eriksson, Tor, 2010. "Inequality of opportunity and income inequality in nine Chinese provinces, 1989-2006," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 607-616, December.
    37. Anthony Shorrocks, 2013. "Decomposition procedures for distributional analysis: a unified framework based on the Shapley value," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 11(1), pages 99-126, March.
    38. Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Jérémie Gignoux, 2011. "The Measurement Of Inequality Of Opportunity: Theory And An Application To Latin America," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 57(4), pages 622-657, December.
    39. Francisco H.G. Ferreira & Jérémie Gignoux, 2011. "The Measurement of Inequality of Inequality of Opportunity: Theory and an Application to Latin America," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-00754503, HAL.
    40. Petra Persson & Maya Rossin-Slater, 2018. "Family Ruptures, Stress, and the Mental Health of the Next Generation: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(4-5), pages 1256-1263, April.
    41. Mary McEniry & Alberto Palloni & Ana Luisa Dávila & Alberto García Gurucharri, 2008. "Early Life Exposure to Poor Nutrition and Infectious Diseases and Its Effects on the Health of Older Puerto Rican Adults," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 63(6), pages 337-348.
    42. Liliya Leopold, 2018. "Education and Physical Health Trajectories in Later Life: A Comparative Study," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(3), pages 901-927, June.
    43. Kaushik Basu & Joseph E. Stiglitz (ed.), 2016. "Inequality and Growth: Patterns and Policy," International Economic Association Series, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-55459-8.
    44. Pedro Rosa Dias & Andrew M. Jones, 2007. "Giving equality of opportunity a fair innings," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(2), pages 109-112, February.
    45. Florian Wendelspiess Chavez Juarez & Isidro Soloaga, 2014. "iop: Estimating ex-ante inequality of opportunity," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 14(4), pages 830-846, December.
    46. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2016. "Does Grief Transfer across Generations? Bereavements during Pregnancy and Child Outcomes," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 193-223, January.
    47. David Simon, 2016. "Does Early Life Exposure to Cigarette Smoke Permanently Harm Childhood Welfare? Evidence from Cigarette Tax Hikes," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 128-159, October.
    48. repec:dau:papers:123456789/268 is not listed on IDEAS
    49. repec:dau:papers:123456789/12516 is not listed on IDEAS
    50. Jonathan Haughton & Shahidur R. Khandker, 2009. "Handbook on Poverty and Inequality," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 11985.
    51. Zeng Yi & Danan Gu & Kenneth Land, 2007. "Erratum to: The association of childhood socioeconomic conditions with healthy longevity at the oldest-old ages in China," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 44(4), pages 1-1, November.
    52. Damien Bricard & Florence Jusot & Alain Trannoy & Sandy Tubeuf, 2013. "Inequality of Opportunities in Health and the Principle of Natural Reward: Evidence from European Countries," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Health and Inequality, volume 21, pages 335-370, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    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. Vandenberghe, Vincent, 2021. "Differentiating Retirement Age to Compensate for Career Arduousness," GLO Discussion Paper Series 803, Global Labor Organization (GLO).

    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. Xi Chen & Binjian Yan & Thomas M. Gill, 2022. "Childhood Circumstances and Health Inequality in Old Age: Comparative Evidence from China and the USA," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 689-716, April.
    2. Yan, Binjian & Chen, Xi & Gill, Thomas M., 2020. "Health inequality among Chinese older adults: The role of childhood circumstances," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    3. Chen, Xi, 2022. "Early Life Circumstances and the Health of Older Adults: A Research Note," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1158, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    4. Nie, Peng & Ding, Lanlin & Jones, Andrew M., 2020. "Inequality of Opportunity in Bodyweight among Middle-Aged and Older Chinese: A Distributional Approach," IZA Discussion Papers 13421, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Lanlin Ding & Andrew M. Jones & Peng Nie, 2022. "Ex ante Inequality of Opportunity in Health among the Elderly in China: A Distributional Decomposition Analysis of Biomarkers," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(4), pages 922-950, December.
    6. John E. Roemer & Alain Trannoy, 2016. "Equality of Opportunity: Theory and Measurement," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(4), pages 1288-1332, December.
    7. Paul Hufe & Andreas Peichl & Daniel Weishaar, 2022. "Lower and upper bound estimates of inequality of opportunity for emerging economies," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 58(3), pages 395-427, April.
    8. Pedro Salas-Rojo & Juan Gabriel Rodríguez, 2019. "The distribution of wealth in the U.S. and Spain: the role of socio-economic factors," Working Papers 506, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    9. Davillas, Apostolos & Jones, Andrew M, 2020. "Ex ante inequality of opportunity in health, decomposition and distributional analysis of biomarkers," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    10. David Pérez-Mesa & à ngel S. Marrero, 2024. "Adult health and inequality of opportunity in Spain," Working Papers 671, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    11. Vincenzo Carrieri & Apostolos Davillas & Andrew M. Jones, 2023. "Equality of opportunity and the expansion of higher education in the UK," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 69(4), pages 861-885, December.
    12. Rafael Carranza, 2023. "Upper and Lower Bound Estimates of Inequality of Opportunity: A Cross‐National Comparison for Europe," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 69(4), pages 838-860, December.
    13. Shi, Xinjie, 2022. "Inequality of opportunity in earnings in rural China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    14. Davillas, A. & Jones, A.M., 2020. "The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on inequality of opportunity in psychological distress in the UK," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 20/11, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    15. Paul Hufe & Andreas Peichl, 2020. "Beyond Equal Rights: Equality of Opportunity in Political Participation," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 66(3), pages 477-511, September.
    16. repec:dau:papers:123456789/13753 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Florence Jusot & Sabine Mage & Marta Menendez, 2014. "Inequality of Opportunity in Health in Indonesia," Working Papers DT/2014/06, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    18. Apostolos Davillas & Andrew M Jones, 2021. "The first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic and its impact on socioeconomic inequality in psychological distress in the UK," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(7), pages 1668-1683, July.
    19. Felipe Rivera, 2017. "Health opportunities in Colombia," Lecturas de Economía, Universidad de Antioquia, Departamento de Economía, issue 87, pages 125-164, Julio - D.
    20. Sulin Sardoschau, 2019. "Children of War: In-Utero Stress and Child Health in Iraq," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-02383137, HAL.
    21. Shi, X., 2018. "Inequality of Opportunity in Earnings in Rural China," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277016, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Life course approach; Inequality of opportunity; Self-rated health; Mental health; Frailty; Childhood circumstances;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • 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
    • O57 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Comparative Studies of Countries

    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:zbw:glodps:594. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/glabode.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.