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Case, Lubotsky, and Paxson (2001) show that the well-known relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and health exists in childhood and grows more pronounced with age. ... The first is that low- SES children are less able to respond to a given health shock. ... children; 2) both high and low-SES children recover from past health shocks to about the same degree; and 3) that the relationship between SES and health grows stronger over time mainly because low-SES children receive more negative health shocks. In addition, we examine the effect of health shocks on math and reading scores. We find that health shocks affect test scores and future health in very similar ways. Our results suggest that public policy aimed at reducing SES-related health differentials in children should focus on reducing the incidence of health shocks as well as on reducing disparities in access to palliative care. ... edu
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The relationship between socioeconomic status and health is one of the most robust and
well documented findings in social science. ... Case, Lubotsky, and Paxson (2001) look at children in order to find the ：origins of the gradient；, since the health of children may be assumed to have relatively little impact on their own socioeconomic status. They show that the well-known cross-sectional relationship between SES and health exists in childhood and is more pronounced among older than among younger children. Since poor health in childhood is likely to affect adult well-being directly through its effects on health, and indirectly through its effects on other forms of human capital accumulation, it is important to try to address the causes of SES-related gradients in health status among children. ... On the one hand, it is possible that low-SES children are less able to respond to a given health shock, so that the negative effects of health shocks persist and accumulate over time. This model would imply that low-SES children are in need of better medical care so that they can respond to health shocks in the same way as higher- SES children. On the other hand, it is possible that low-SES children respond to health shocks in a way that is similar to high-SES children, but are just subject to more shocks. This model implies that SES-related gradients can be reduced by addressing the reasons why low-SES children are more likely to be subject to health shocks. This distinction is important for policy because it implies that it may be productive to spend social resources on measures designed to
reduce the arrival rate of health shocks as well as continuing to improve children・s access to palliative medical care. ... However, we find little evidence that the long-term effects of health shocks on future health are different for high- SES and low-SES children, even though in the short run, low-SES children suffer greater health losses than high-SES children after the arrival of a health shock. Hence, we infer that the crosssectional relationship between health, income (or maternal education), and age arises primarily because low income children are more likely to be subject to health shocks
In addition to the negative effects of poor child health on health in later life, it is possible
that poor health disadvantages children by affecting their cognitive and/or academic functioning. ... These estimates indicate that poor health in childhood has negative effects on children・s test scores and positive effects on the probability that they have repeated grades even some years later. However, although we find some evidence that higher maternal education reduces the immediate negative effect of health shocks, we find little evidence that the long-term effects of poor health or health shocks differs by SES.
The rest of the paper proceeds as follows: Section 1 provides some background regarding the relationship between SES and health. ... Background Regarding the Relationship Between SES and Health
There is a vast literature documenting the relationship between socio-economic status and
health (see Marmot and Wilkinson, 1999 for a review). However, it has been difficult to
determine whether the relationship exists primarily because health affects socioeconomic status, whether socioeconomic status has a direct impact on health, or whether both are affected by some third factor (such as rate of time preferences, c. ... Smith (1998) proposes that it may be difficult to find a single correct answer to this question of causality since SES may affect health in childhood, while the direction of causality may run the other way among adults. Deaton and Paxson (1999b) present some evidence regarding the SES-health relationship among U. ... (1994) have investigated health- SES gradients among adolescents in the United Kingdom and in Scotland, respectively. ...
However, other than Case, Lubotsky and Paxson (CLP), we know of no other study that
examines the way that the relationship between SES and health changes with age among children. In a related study, Currie and Hyson (1999) ask whether the long run impact of low birth weight differs with socioeconomic status in a cohort of British children born in 1958. They found that while low birth weight had a persistent negative impact on a range of outcomes, there was little evidence that its effects varied with socioeconomic status, though low-SES children were more likely to suffer from low birthweight to begin with.
This latter finding is consistent with a great deal of evidence that low-SES children are
more likely to suffer negative health shocks than high-SES children. ...
There is also a good deal of evidence that ill health in childhood affects adult health and
SES through multiple pathways. ... Marmot and Wadsworth (1997) review the literature linking these and many other child health outcomes to health in adulthood.
Approximate Word count = 4734
Approximate Pages = 18.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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