title: Health selection vs. causation in the income gradient: what can we learn from graphical trends?
abstract: Income produces health, and sickness negatively affects earnings. These two factors likely explain the income gradient in health, but each has very different policy implications. In this paper, I examine graphical trends in mortality risk between low-income and higher-income people by age and gender. These trends suggest that forward causality (income affecting health) is more important than reverse causality (health affecting income) in the income-health gradient. However, there is some evidence to suggest that reverse causality plays an important role for younger men.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA. pm124@columbia.edu
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Muennig
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D015984:Causality; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D012737:Sex Factors