TY  - JOUR
AU  - Fletcher,Jason
AU  - Wolfe,Barbara L.
TI  - Increasing Our Understanding of the Health-Income Gradient in Children
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 18639
PY  - 2012
Y2  - December 2012
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18639
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18639.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Jason Fletcher
Yale School of Public Health
Department of Health Policy and Management
60 College Street, #303
New Haven, CT 06520
Tel: 203/785-5760
E-Mail: jason.fletcher@yale.edu

Barbara L. Wolfe
1225 Observatory Dr
University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI 53706
Tel: 608/263-2029
Fax: 608/265-3119
E-Mail: BWolfe@wisc.edu
AB  - There have been numerous attempts to both document the income-health gradient in children and to understand the nature of the tie. In this paper we review and summarize existing studies and then use a unique school based panel data set from the US to attempt to further our understanding of the relationship. The long duration (5 observations, 9 years) allows us to add to the understanding of the pattern of the tie, through our ability to test for changes in health status and multiple measures of income, and the school-based nature of the data allow us to add community SES to the model. Increasing understanding of the income-health gradient may allow more effective targeting of interventions to decrease the gradient and hence decrease health disparities among children.
ER  -