Working Paper: NBER ID: w14333
Authors: David M. Cutler; Adriana Lleras-Muney; Tom Vogl
Abstract: This paper reviews the evidence on the well-known positive association between socioeconomic status and health. We focus on four dimensions of socioeconomic status -- education, financial resources, rank, and race and ethnicity -- paying particular attention to how the mechanisms linking health to each of these dimensions diverge and coincide. The extent to which socioeconomic advantage causes good health varies, both across these four dimensions and across the phases of the lifecycle. Circumstances in early life play a crucial role in determining the co-evolution of socioeconomic status and health throughout adulthood. In adulthood, a considerable part of the association runs from health to socioeconomic status, at least in the case of wealth. The diversity of pathways casts doubt upon theories that treat socioeconomic status as a unified concept.
Keywords: socioeconomic status; health; education; income; race; ethnicity
JEL Codes: I1
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Higher education (I23) | Health behaviors (lower smoking rates, better health management) (I12) |
| Income (D31) | Access to health inputs (I14) |
| Poor health (I12) | Income (D31) |
| Racial and ethnic disparities in health (I14) | Socioeconomic status (I24) |
| Education (I29) | Health benefits (I12) |
| Psychosocial stress (I31) | Health outcomes (I14) |
| Higher education (I23) | Better health outcomes (I14) |