NB22-06: A New Database to Measure Changes in the Association Between Income, Race, and Life Expectancy Over Time

We propose to update the income-mortality gradient statistics from Chetty et al. (JAMA, 2016, funded by the NBER SSA RRC) to the present day, as the start of a project that will aim to release these statistics recurrently on an annual basis. This project will result in annual statistics on the income-mortality gradient at the race-by-gender-by-commuting zone (CZ) level in the U.S., which will augment our understanding of more general patterns of income inequality and support other researchers in their own work. To illustrate the value of such annual statistics, we then will use them to analyze how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the income-mortality gradient - to what extent has the large increase in mortality from this disease fallen on the poor, and how does that vary by race, gender, and location? We will also analyze how this income-mortality gradient correlates with other variables, both at the individual level (e.g., disability status, education, wealth, health insurance coverage) and area level (e.g., local health facilities, strength of social distancing measures, local infection rates, etc…).