TY - JOUR AU - Cutler,David M. AU - Landrum,Mary Beth AU - Stewart,Kate A. TI - How Do the Better Educated Do It? Socioeconomic Status and the Ability to Cope with Underlying Impairment JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 12040 PY - 2006 Y2 - February 2006 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12040 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12040.pdf N1 - Author contact info: David M. Cutler Department of Economics Harvard University 1875 Cambridge Street Cambridge, MA 02138 Tel: 617/496-5216 Fax: 617/496-8951 E-Mail: dcutler@harvard.edu Mary Beth Landrum Harvard Medical School Department of Health Care Policy 180 Longwood Avenue Boston, MA 02115-5899 Tel: (617) 432-2460 Fax: (617) 432-2563 E-Mail: landrum@hcp.med.harvard.edu Kate Stewart Department of Health Care Policy 180 Longwood Ave Boston, MA 02115 Tel: 617-432-3497 Fax: 617-432-2463 E-Mail: kstewart@mathematica-mpr.com M1 - published as David M. Cutler, Mary Beth Landrum, Kate A. Stewart. "How Do The Better Educated Do It? Socioeconomic Status and the Ability to Cope With Underlying Impairment," in David A. Wise, editor, "Developments in the Economics of Aging" University of Chicago Press (2009) AB - There is a pronounced gradient in disability across socioeconomic groups, with better educated and higher income groups reporting substantially less disability. In this paper, we consider why that is the case, focusing on impairments in basic physical and cognitive aspects of living for the elderly. Our empirical work has two parts. First, we consider how much of this gradient in disability is a result of underlying differences in functioning versus the ability to cope with impairments. We show differences in functioning are the major part of the difference in disability, but both are important. Second, we consider how the better educated elderly cope with disability. Better educated people use substantially more assistive technology than the less educated and are more likely to use paid help. But use of these services is not the primary reason that the better educated are better able to cope. We conclude with thoughts about other potential factors that may explain differential coping. ER -