IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp6554.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Income Inequality and Health: Lessons from a Refugee Residential Assignment Program

Author

Listed:
  • Grönqvist, Hans

    (Uppsala University)

  • Johansson, Per

    (Uppsala University)

  • Niknami, Susan

    (SOFI, Stockholm University)

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of income inequality on health for a group of particularly disadvantaged individuals: refugees. Our analysis draws on longitudinal hospitalization records coupled with a settlement policy where Swedish authorities assigned newly arrived refugees to their first area of residence. The policy was implemented in a way that provides a source of plausibly random variation in initial location. The results reveal no statistically significant effect of income inequality on the risk of being hospitalized. This finding holds also for most population subgroups and when separating between different types of diagnoses. Our estimates are precise enough to rule out large effects of income inequality on health.

Suggested Citation

  • Grönqvist, Hans & Johansson, Per & Niknami, Susan, 2012. "Income Inequality and Health: Lessons from a Refugee Residential Assignment Program," IZA Discussion Papers 6554, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6554
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp6554.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Angus Deaton, 2003. "Health, Inequality, and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(1), pages 113-158, March.
    2. Hugh Gravelle & Matt Sutton, 2009. "Income, relative income, and self‐reported health in Britain 1979–2000," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(2), pages 125-145, February.
    3. Miller, Douglas L. & Paxson, Christina, 2006. "Relative income, race, and mortality," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 979-1003, September.
    4. Angus Deaton, 2001. "Relative Deprivation, Inequality, and Mortality," NBER Working Papers 8099, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Wilkinson, Richard G & Pickett, Kate E., 2006. "Income inequality and population health: A review and explanation of the evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(7), pages 1768-1784, April.
    6. Olof Åslund & Per-Anders Edin & Peter Fredriksson & Hans Grönqvist, 2011. "Peers, Neighborhoods, and Immigrant Student Achievement: Evidence from a Placement Policy," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 67-95, April.
    7. Roland Benabou, 2000. "Unequal Societies: Income Distribution and the Social Contract," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(1), pages 96-129, March.
    8. Robert J. Waldmann, 1992. "Income Distribution and Infant Mortality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(4), pages 1283-1302.
    9. Marianne Bertrand & Erzo F. P. Luttmer & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2000. "Network Effects and Welfare Cultures," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 1019-1055.
    10. Jeffrey R Kling & Jeffrey B Liebman & Lawrence F Katz, 2007. "Experimental Analysis of Neighborhood Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(1), pages 83-119, January.
    11. Gottschalk, Peter & Smeeding, Timothy M., 2000. "Empirical evidence on income inequality in industrialized countries," Handbook of Income Distribution, in: A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), Handbook of Income Distribution, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 5, pages 261-307, Elsevier.
    12. Subramanyam, Malavika & Kawachi, Ichiro & Berkman, Lisa & Subramanian, S.V., 2009. "Relative deprivation in income and self-rated health in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 327-334, August.
    13. Deaton, Angus & Lubotsky, Darren, 2003. "Mortality, inequality and race in American cities and states," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(6), pages 1139-1153, March.
    14. Jennifer M. Mellor & Jeffrey D. Milyo, 2001. "Income inequality and health," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(1), pages 151-155.
    15. Hesselius, Patrik & Johansson, Per & Nilsson, Peter, 2009. "Sick of your colleagues' absence?," Working Paper Series 2009:2, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    16. Per-Anders Edin & Peter Fredriksson & Olof Åslund, 2003. "Ethnic Enclaves and the Economic Success of Immigrants—Evidence from a Natural Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 329-357.
    17. Mark E. Votruba & Jeffrey R. Kling, 2004. "Effects of Neighborhood Characteristics on the Mortality of Black Male Youth: Evidence From Gautreaux," Working Papers 870, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    18. Judge, Ken & Mulligan, Jo-Ann & Benzeval, Michaela, 0. "Income inequality and population health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 46(4-5), pages 567-579, February.
    19. Lance Lochner & Enrico Moretti, 2004. "The Effect of Education on Crime: Evidence from Prison Inmates, Arrests, and Self-Reports," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 155-189, March.
    20. Jeffrey R. Kling & Mark E. Votruba, 2004. "Effects of Neighborhood Characteristics on the Mortality of Black Male Youth: Evidence From Gautreaux," Working Papers 870, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    21. Niknami, Susan, 2010. "Intergenerational Transmission of Education among Immigrant Mothers and their Daughters in Sweden," SULCIS Working Papers 2010:10, Stockholm University, Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies - SULCIS.
    22. Rolf Aaberge & Anders Björklund & Markus Jäntti & Mårten Palme & Peder J. Pedersen & Nina Smith & Tom Wennemo, 2002. "Income Inequality and Income Mobility in the Scandinavian Countries Compared to the United States," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 48(4), pages 443-469, December.
    23. Englund, Peter, 1999. "The Swedish Banking Crisis: Roots and Consequences," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 15(3), pages 80-97, Autumn.
    24. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    25. Paula K. Lorgelly & Joanne Lindley, 2008. "What is the relationship between income inequality and health? Evidence from the BHPS," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(2), pages 249-265, February.
    26. Atkinson, Anthony B., 1970. "On the measurement of inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 244-263, September.
    27. Jennifer M. Mellor & Jeffrey Milyo, 2002. "Income Inequality and Health Status in the United States: Evidence from the Current Population Survey," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 37(3), pages 510-539.
    28. Leigh, Andrew & Jencks, Christopher, 2007. "Inequality and mortality: Long-run evidence from a panel of countries," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 1-24, January.
    29. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, April.
    30. Ulf-G. Gerdtham & Magnus Johannesson, 2004. "Absolute Income, Relative Income, Income Inequality, and Mortality," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(1).
    31. Soobader, Mah-Jabeen & LeClere, Felicia B., 1999. "Aggregation and the measurement of income inequality: effects on morbidity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(6), pages 733-744, March.
    32. Christine Eibner & William N. Evans, 2005. "Relative Deprivation, Poor Health Habits, and Mortality," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(3).
    33. Kawachi, I. & Kennedy, B.P. & Lochner, K. & Prothrow-Stith, D., 1997. "Social capital, income inequality, and mortality," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 87(9), pages 1491-1498.
    34. repec:pri:cheawb:deaton_relative_deprivation.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    35. Gravelle, Hugh & Wildman, John & Sutton, Matthew, 2002. "Income, income inequality and health: what can we learn from aggregate data?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 577-589, February.
    36. Wildman, John, 2003. "Modelling health, income and income inequality: the impact of income inequality on health and health inequality," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 521-538, July.
    37. Jones, Andrew M. & Wildman, John, 2008. "Health, income and relative deprivation: Evidence from the BHPS," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 308-324, March.
    38. Eiji Mangyo & Albert Park, 2011. "Relative Deprivation and Health: Which Reference Groups Matter?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 46(3), pages 459-481.
    39. repec:bla:revinw:v:48:y:2002:i:4:p:443-69 is not listed on IDEAS
    40. Olof Åslund & Dan-Olof Rooth, 2007. "Do when and where matter? initial labour market conditions and immigrant earnings," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(518), pages 422-448, March.
    41. Bjorklund, Anders & Jantti, Markus, 1997. "Intergenerational Income Mobility in Sweden Compared to the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(5), pages 1009-1018, December.
    42. Lynch, J.W. & Kaplan, G.A. & Pamuk, E.R. & Cohen, R.D. & Heck, K.E. & Balfour, J.L. & Yen, I.H., 1998. "Income inequality and mortality in metropolitan areas of the United States," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 88(7), pages 1074-1080.
    43. Lochner, K. & Pamuk, E. & Makuc, D. & Kennedy, B.P. & Kawachi, I., 2001. "State-level income inequality and individual mortality risk: A prospective, multilevel study," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 91(3), pages 385-391.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Thomas Schober & Katrin Zocher, 2018. "Health care utilization of refugees," CDL Aging, Health, Labor working papers 2018-08, The Christian Doppler (CD) Laboratory Aging, Health, and the Labor Market, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    2. Nisar Ahmad & Shahbaz Khan, 2021. "Impact of Income Inequality on Health Status in South Asian Countries: A Panel Data Analysis," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(2), pages 205-219.
    3. Jonathan Wadsworth, 2013. "Mustn't Grumble: Immigration, Health and Health Service Use in the UK and Germany," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 34(1), pages 55-82, March.
    4. Grönqvist, Hans & Niknami, Susan & Robling, P-O, 2015. "Childhood Exposure to Segregation and Long-Run Criminal Involvement - Evidence from the “Whole of Sweden” Strategy#," Working Paper Series 1/2015, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
    5. Michel Beine & Luisito Bertinelli & Rana Comertpay & Anastasia Litina & Jean-Francois Maystadt, 2020. "The Gravity Model of Forced Displacement Using Mobile Phone Data," Working Papers 293574571, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    6. Nekby, Lena & Pettersson-Lidbom, Per, 2012. "Revisiting the Relationship between Ethnic Diversity and Preferences for Redistribution," Research Papers in Economics 2012:9, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    7. Beine, Michel & Bertinelli, Luisito & Cömertpay, Rana & Litina, Anastasia & Maystadt, Jean-François, 2021. "A gravity analysis of refugee mobility using mobile phone data," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    8. Michel Beine & Luisito Bertinelli & rana Comertpay & Anastasia Litina & Jean-François Maystadt & Benteng Zou, 2019. "Refugee Mobility: Evidence from Phone Data in Turkey," DEM Discussion Paper Series 19-01, Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg.
    9. Owen O'Donnell & Eddy Van Doorslaer & Tom Van Ourti, 2013. "Health and Inequality," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-170/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    10. Keloharju, Matti & Knüpfer, Samuli & Tåg, Joacim, 2020. "CEO Health," Working Paper Series 1326, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 30 May 2022.
    11. Hasager, Linea & Jørgensen, Mia, 2024. "Sick of Your Poor Neighborhood? Quasi-Experimental Evidence on Neighborhood Effects on Health," IZA Discussion Papers 16949, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Matz Dahlberg & Madhinee Valeyatheepillay, 2019. "On the Anatomy of a Refugee Dispersal Policy: Neighborhood Integration and Dynamic Sorting," ifo Working Paper Series 285, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    13. Lena Nekby & Per Pettersson‐Lidbom, 2017. "Revisiting the Relationship between Ethnic Diversity and Preferences for Redistribution: Comment," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 119(2), pages 268-287, April.
    14. Kang, Songman & Son, Hyelim & Song, B.K., 2023. "The effect of housing price inequality on mental health," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    15. Jonathan Wadsworth, 2012. "Musn’t Grumble. Immigration, Health and Health Service Use in the UK and Germany," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 1221, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    16. Björkegren, Evelina, 2018. "Neighborhoods and youth health: Everybody needs good neighbors?," Working Paper Series 2018:10, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    17. Nisar Ahmad & Moodhi Raid & Jumah Alzyadat & Hisham Alhawal, 2023. "Impact of urbanization and income inequality on life expectancy of male and female in South Asian countries: a moderating role of health expenditures," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Owen O'Donnell & Eddy Van Doorslaer & Tom Van Ourti, 2013. "Health and Inequality," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-170/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    2. Angus Deaton, 2003. "Health, Inequality, and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(1), pages 113-158, March.
    3. Herzer, Dierk & Nunnenkamp, Peter, 2015. "Income inequality and health: Evidence from developed and developing countries," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 9, pages 1-56.
    4. Kang, Songman & Son, Hyelim & Song, B.K., 2023. "The effect of housing price inequality on mental health," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    5. Ken Judge & Iain Paterson, 2001. "Poverty, Income Inequality and Health," Treasury Working Paper Series 01/29, New Zealand Treasury.
    6. Li, Hongbin & Zhu, Yi, 2006. "Income, income inequality, and health: Evidence from China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 668-693, December.
    7. Tilman Tacke & Robert J. Waldmann, 2013. "Infant mortality, relative income and public policy," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(22), pages 3240-3254, August.
    8. Nicole Grunewald & Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso, 2014. "Green Growth in Mexico, Brazil and Chile: Policy strategies and future prospects," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 229, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    9. Petri Böckerman, 2013. "Top Income Shares and Mortality: Evidence from Advanced Countries," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 22(1), pages 57-69, March.
    10. Pham-Kanter, Genevieve, 2009. "Social comparisons and health: Can having richer friends and neighbors make you sick?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 335-344, August.
    11. Lhila, Aparna, 2009. "Does government provision of healthcare explain the relationship between income inequality and low birthweight?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 1236-1245, October.
    12. Irakli Japaridze & Nagham Sayour, 2021. "Dying from envy: The role of inequality," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 1374-1392, June.
    13. Herzer, Dierk & Nunnenkamp, Peter, 2011. "Income inequality and health: New evidence from panel data," Kiel Working Papers 1736, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    14. Maite Blázquez & Elena Cottini & Ainhoa Herrarte, 2014. "The socioeconomic gradient in health: how important is material deprivation?," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 12(2), pages 239-264, June.
    15. Wilkinson, Richard G & Pickett, Kate E., 2006. "Income inequality and population health: A review and explanation of the evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(7), pages 1768-1784, April.
    16. Zheng, Hui, 2009. "Rising U.S. income inequality, gender and individual self-rated health, 1972-2004," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 1333-1342, November.
    17. Cristina Blanco-Perez, 2012. "Rethinking the Relative Income Hypothesis," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 501, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    18. Mary C. Daly & Daniel J. Wilson, 2013. "Inequality and Mortality: New Evidence from U.S. County Panel Data," Working Paper Series 2013-13, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    19. Vincent Hildebrand & Philippe Kerm, 2009. "Income inequality and self-rated health status: Evidence from the european community household panel," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 46(4), pages 805-825, November.
    20. Karlsson, Martin & Nilsson, Therese & Lyttkens, Carl Hampus & Leeson, George, 2010. "Income inequality and health: Importance of a cross-country perspective," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(6), pages 875-885, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    quasi-experiment; immigration; income inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6554. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.