title: Does early-life income inequality predict self-reported health in later life? Evidence from the United States.
abstract: We investigate the association between adult health and the income inequality they experienced as children up to 80 years earlier. Our inequality data track shares of national income held by top percentiles from 1913 to 2009. We average those data over the same early-life years and merge them to individual data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics data for 1984-2009. Controlling for demographic and economic factors, we find both men and women are statistically more likely to report poorer health if income was more unequally distributed during the first years of their lives. The association is robust to alternative specifications of income inequality and time trends and remains significant even when we control for differences in overall childhood health. Our results constitute prima facie evidence that adults' health may be adversely affected by the income inequality they experienced as children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Sciences, 1787 Neil Avenue, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA; DIW Berlin, Mohrenstraße 58, 10117 Berlin, Germany; NBER, Cambridge, MA, USA. Electronic address: lillard.13@osu.edu.
authors.forename: Dean R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Lillard
authors.affiliation: DIW Berlin, Mohrenstraße 58, 10117 Berlin, Germany; NBER, Cambridge, MA, USA; Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA; Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Richard V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Burkhauser
authors.affiliation: Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Markus H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Hahn
authors.affiliation: Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wilkins
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012923:Social Class; D064890:Social Determinants of Health; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States
keywords: Adult health; Early-life conditions; Health Economics; Income Inequality; Income inequality; Life course; North America; Probit analysis; Regression; Self-reported health; U.S.