Doctoral Dissertation Research: Does Money Beget Health? A Search for Exogenous Variation

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Doctoral Dissertation Research: Does Money Beget Health? A Search for Exogenous VariationFor centuries now, good health and economic resources have tended to go hand-in-hand. But, does this positive association reflect a true causal relationship? And, what is the relative importance of alternative causal directions? Further, which components of socioeconomic status (e.g. income, occupation, etc) matter the most to health? This dissertation addresses such questions by isolating unique instances in which components of socioeconomic status vary independently of health and associated factors (i.e., isolating exogenous variation in socioeconomic status). Emphasizing such exogenous variation will help isolate causal effects of different aspects of socioeconomic status on health-primarily by eliminating alternative interpretations of socioeconomic effects (e.g. eliminating the possibility that evidence of socioeconomic effects are really the result of health causation or unobserved variation).This project will consider how unemployment that is independent of initial health status affects subsequent health status though an examination of labor displacement that follows a company going out of business, relocating, or closing a plant. Decomposing the effects of different aspects of unemployment will further reveal how separate components of socioeconomic status (e.g. earnings and occupation) affect health. This project will also consider how exogenous differences in transfer income may shape health by exploiting interstate variation in unemployment insurance programs in the U.S. Finally, focusing on sudden increases in wealth generated by inheritances, this project will consider the distinct ways in which wealth and family background may affect health. Data for this dissertation will be based on a nationally representative, longitudinal sample of American families contained within the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Estimates for this project will be generated using a variety of statistical modeling techniques. The broader impacts of this research involve deepen our understanding of how biology and environment work together to sort individuals into social and health hierarchies. In this vein, the project will directly address questions about the health consequences of social positions, and indirectly address questions about the health factors responsible for social positions. Results from this research will be of interest to a variety of scholars and policy makers. Economists, epidemiologists, and members of the medical community will likely be interested in findings from this study. Findings from this research will also speak to concerns within public health policy. Estimates of the causal impact of socioeconomic status on health will address concerns of whether and how reducing economic inequality may reduce health disparities.