TY  - JOUR
AU  - Case,Anne
AU  - Lubotsky,Darren
AU  - Paxson,Christina
TI  - Economic Status and Health in Childhood: The Origins of the Gradient
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8344
PY  - 2001
Y2  - June 2001
DO  - 10.3386/w8344
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8344
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8344.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Anne Case
367 Wallace Hall
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544
Tel: 609/258-2177
Fax: 609/258-5974
E-Mail: accase@princeton.edu

Darren Lubotsky
Department of Economics
University of Illinois at Chicago
University Hall Room 724
601 South Morgan Street
Chicago, IL 60607
Tel: 312/996-6240
E-Mail: lubotsky@uic.edu

Christina Paxson
Office of the President
Brown University
Box 1860
Providence, RI  02912
Tel: 401/863-1979
E-Mail: christina_paxson@brown.edu
AB  - We show that the well-known positive association between health and income in adulthood has antecedents in childhood. Using the National Health Interview Surveys, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, we find that children's health is positively related to household income. The relationship between household income and children's health status becomes more pronounced as children grow older. A large component of the relationship between income and children's health can be explained by the arrival and impact of chronic health conditions in childhood. Children from lower-income households with chronic health conditions have worse health than do children from higher-income households. Further, we find that children's health is closely associated with long-run average household income, and that the adverse health effects of lower permanent income accumulate over children's lives. Part of the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status may work through the impact of parents' long run average income on children's health.
ER  -