Mortality and distribution of income. Low relative income affects mortality.
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Humans↗
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Mortality and distribution of income. Widening income inequalities cause poorer health.
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Health Status↗
The impact of income redistribution on fertility in Canada.
This paper speculates on the role of income redistribution as a means of raising fertility in Canada. It is argued that if the relationship between income and fertility is non-linear at the household level, then changes in the income distribution in a society have important consequences for changes in aggregate fertility. In order to test this hypothesis, a simple fertility model is estimated using micro-data collected in the 1981 Canadian Census. The relationship between income and fertility is found to be nonlinear with properties that indicate that transfers of income from "rich" to "poor" households will likely further depress the overall level of fertility in Canada.
Americas↗
Road injuries and long-run effects on income and employment.
This paper investigates whether unexpected shocks in terms of road injuries 'cause' a permanent change in disposable income, earnings, employment, and public transfer income. We use 'propensity score matching' and apply a difference-in-difference matching method to estimate the counterfactual of what the disposable income, earnings, employment, and the amount of public transfer income would have been of a particular group of persons injured by road accidents if they had not in fact been injured. We find that road injuries have important consequences. Older injured persons and injured persons in the lower part of the income distribution have significantly lower disposable incomes than older and low-income non-injured persons. In both the short and the long run the employment rates for the injured men are significantly lower than for non-injured persons. No effects on the employment rate are found for women. Besides, earnings are reduced in the long run for men where significant effects are only found for older women. The analysis shows that both injured men and women are compensated in terms of a significant increase in public transfer incomes in both the short and the long run.
Accidents, Traffic↗
Projecting retirement income of future retirees with panel data: results from the modeling income in the near-term (MINT) project.
Cross-sectional data capture only a point in time and miss individual changes in earnings, labor force participation, marriage, fertility, and health. Because panel data follow individuals over time, they do not have this problem. The problems or concerns with cross-sectional data may be compounded when these data are used to make projections. Iams and Sandell (1997) found that using panel data on earnings explained much more variation in future earnings than using cross-sectional survey data. Panel data are also needed to estimate Social Security benefits, especially for women. Because of auxiliary benefits paid to spouses, ex-spouses, and widow(er)s of entitled workers, an individual's Social Security retirement benefit depends not only on his or her earnings history, but also on his or her marital history and the earnings histories of current and previous spouses. When we compare projected unreduced Social Security benefits with what they would be if we didn't have marital history or earnings history data for men, we find that: Benefits computed using only earnings histories are not very different from benefits computed using both earnings and marital histories. Benefits computed using only current earnings and marital histories underestimate benefits for those in earlier birth cohorts and overestimate benefits for those in the most recent birth cohort. Benefits computed without either marital or earnings histories underestimate benefits for all birth cohorts, but by much more for earlier cohorts than for more recent cohorts. For women we find that benefits computed without marital or earnings histories underestimate benefits in all birth cohorts. The largest differences are for women in earlier birth cohorts. Using both marital and earnings histories to estimate unreduced Social Security benefits, we find that men are projected to continue receiving higher benefits than women, although the gap is expected to narrow as the baby boomers near retirement age. We also look at the composition of projected total income available at retirement for those with incomes in the 45th-55th percentiles of the income distribution and find that: Total income at retirement is projected to be larger for men than for women in every birth cohort. Women are projected to receive the largest share of their total income from Social Security benefits. Men are projected to receive the largest share of their total income from other income sources, although this share declines as the baby boomers near retirement age.
Cohort Studies↗
Associations of income with self-reported ill-health and health resources in a rural community sample of Austria.
OBJECTIVES: Three levels of health indicators (1) self-reported ill-health, (2) internal health resources, and (3) external health resources were analysed in relation to a four-category house-hold income distribution in order to describe possible social gradients. The particular aim of this study was to obtain information on the association of income data with self-reported ill-health. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was based on a health survey. The sample represents around 10% of the rural population of some communities in Styria, randomly selected from the population registry. Interview data was collected from 3781 participants aged 15 years and older, 1559 males and 2222 females. RESULTS: The results show that individuals from lower house-hold income classes are disadvantaged with regard to indicators of ill-health, internal and external health resources. Overall, the link between low income and poor health is highly consistent within our data. CONCLUSIONS: Considering our results we conclude that internal and external health resources are as unequally distributed over income levels as health outcome indicators.
Adolescent↗
Taxation of Social Security benefits under the new income tax provisions: distributional estimates for 1994.
The 1993 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act raised the proportion of benefits includable in income for the Federal personal income tax. This article presents estimates of the income-distributional effects of the new provision in 1994, the first year for which it is effective. Under the pre-1993 law, up to 50 percent of benefits were included in taxable income for certain high-income beneficiaries. Under the new law, some of these beneficiaries are required to include an even higher proportion of benefits--up to 85 percent. Only 11 percent of beneficiary families, concentrated in the top three deciles by family income, include more of their benefits in taxable income under the new law than they would have under the old law. Another 8 percent include the same amount of benefits under either. The remaining beneficiary families, more than 80 percent, include no benefits in taxable income under either the old law or the new.
Forecasting↗
The impact of filipino micro health-insurance units on income-related equality of access to healthcare.
BACKGROUND: This study aims to assess the impact of being insured by micro-health insurance units (MIUs) on equality of access to health care among groups with inequitable income distribution. We measure equality by relating income with access to healthcare. The analysis is based on a household survey conducted in five regions in the Philippines in 2002. METHODS: We generated concentration curves and indices (CI) for insured and uninsured households (150 for each cohort in each region). We also elaborated a method to retain the relative income rank of households when data were aggregated across regions, as the regions had quite different nominal income levels. RESULTS: We found a significant effect of household income on access to hospitalizations among the uninsured households (a positive CI), but no such effect among the insured households (CI close to zero). As regards professionally attended deliveries, an increased tendency of poorer households to deliver at home (CI slightly negative) and a lower rate of deliveries in hospital (CI slightly positive and statistically significant) were reported by both uninsured and insured households. Access to consultations was unrelated to income among the insured (CI close to 0), but negatively correlated with income among the uninsured (a positive and significant CI). CONCLUSION: We conclude that MIUs in Philippines improve income-related equality of access to hospitalization and medical consultation in cases of illness. The findings of this study strengthen a claim for government support for the operation of MIUs as successful (albeit micro) suppliers of health insurance.
Cross-Sectional Studies↗
Provincial income inequality and self-reported health status in China during 1991-7.
BACKGROUND: The relationship between income inequality and health has been widely explored. Today there is some evidence suggesting that good health is inversely related to income inequality. After the economic reforms initiated in the early 1980s, China experienced one of the fastest-growing income inequalities in the world. The state of China in the 1990s is focussed on and possible effects of provincial income inequality on individual health status are explored. METHODS: A multilevel regression model is used to analyse the data collected in 1991, 1993 and 1997 from nine provinces included in the China Health and Nutrition Survey. The effects of provincial Gini coefficients on self-rated health in each year are evaluated by two logistic regressions estimating the odds ratios of reporting poor or fair health. The patterns of this effect are compared among the survey years and also among different demographic groups. RESULTS: The analyses show an independent effect of income inequality on self-reported health after adjusting for individual and household variables. Furthermore, the effect of income distribution is not attenuated when household income and provincial gross domestic product per capita are included in the model. The results show that there is an increased risk of about 10-15% on average for fair or poor health for people living in provinces with greater income inequalities compared with provinces with modest income inequalities. CONCLUSIONS: In China, societal income inequality appears to be an important determinant of population health during 1991-7.
China↗
The paradox of hunger and economic prosperity in America.
Within a period of twenty years, America discovered that many of its citizens were hungry, acted to greatly reduce this problem through an array of federal programs, and, in the 1980s, learned that hunger has reappeared in epidemic proportions. The return of hunger to the U.S. is associated with economic and tax policies that have reallocated income distribution from poor and middle-income groups to the wealthy, and with a corresponding failure to utilize the federal government to protect high-risk population groups from undernutrition associated with growing economic deprivation in the nation.
Humans↗
A note on the size distribution of cities over time.
"The Pareto Law of Income Distribution is applied to the analysis of city size structures. Particular concern is focused on the Pareto coefficient as a measure of interurban concentration, and on how this varies through time within a nation. On the basis of evidence from 12 nations, it is argued that over time a nation tends to display a U-shaped pattern in the degree of interurban concentration, and that the higher a nation's overall level of development, the more advanced it will be in the sequence of concentration. Consideration is given to the possibility of supporting these conclusions through cross-sectional analysis among nations. The various bases for the proposed temporal pattern of concentration within a nation are then explored."
Demography↗
Income, income inequality and health: what can we learn from aggregate data?
It has been suggested that, especially in countries with high per capita income, there is an independent effect of income distribution on the health of individuals. One source of evidence in support of this relative income hypothesis is the analysis of aggregate cross-section data on population health, per capita income and income inequality. We examine the empirical robustness of cross-section analyses by using a new data set to replicate and extend the methodology in a frequently cited paper. The estimated relationship between income inequality and population health is not significant in any of our estimated models. We also argue there are serious conceptual difficulties in using aggregate cross-sections as a means of testing hypotheses about the effect of income, and its distribution, on the health of individuals.
Cross-Sectional Studies↗
International migration, remittances and economic welfare in the source country.
"This article provides a formal framework for the analysis of the impact of international migration in the presence of remittances. The discussion differentiates between temporary and permanent migration and between the effects of remittances that raise investment and those that raise consumption spending in the source country. Changes in prices, income distribution and national welfare are examined." The geographic focus is worldwide.
Costs and Cost Analysis↗
A simultaneous-equations model of cross-national differentials in fertility and female labour force participation rates.
The author constructs an empirical model to analyze differences in fertility and female labor force participation rates among less- and more-developed countries. "In its theoretical section, the article will emphasize SETF [socioeconomic theories of fertility] as a suitable foundation for demand-oriented population policies based on promotion of socio-economic equity. After a brief review of some major propositions of SETF...a formal model of household behaviour will be developed....Specific attention will be paid to patterns of income distribution...as a major aspect of socio-economic equity."
Birth Rate↗
Macro-to-micro links in the relation between income inequality and mortality.
A growing literature points to links between income inequality and mortality. Any examination of the link should distinguish, both theoretically and empirically, between shifts in inequality that result from changes in the bottom and top of the income distribution. When state-level data from the U.S. censuses of 1980 and 1990 were used to measure differences in mortality, the results indicated that inequality measures reflecting depth of poverty show stronger correlations with mortality than do inequality measures reflecting heights of affluence. In addition, longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics were used to related state-level inequality measures to individual-level data on mortality. This comparison revealed significant associations between degree of income inequality in state of residence and individual risk of death only for nonelderly individuals with middle-class incomes in 1990.
Health Status Indicators↗
On 1/f noise and other distributions with long tails.
It is shown, following Shockley [Shockley, W. (1957) Proc. IRE 45, 279-290], that, when a population is engaged in tasks whose completion requires the successful conclusion of many independent subtasks, the distribution function for successes in the primary task is log normal. It is also shown that, when the dispersion of the log-normal distribution is large, the distribution is mimicked by a 1/x distribution over a wide range of x. This argument provides a generic set of processes that yields the much observed 1/x distribution, and will also lead to a 1/f noise spectrum. It is commonly found that distributions that seem to be log normal over a broad range (say to the 95th percentile of a population) change to an inverse fractional power (Pareto) distribution for the last few percentile. Annual income distributions are examples with this structure. The very wealthy generally achieve their superwealth through amplification processes that are not available to most. We have introduced a simple amplification model to characterize the transition from a log-normal distribution to an inverse-power Pareto tail.
Journal Article↗
Widow(er) poverty and out-of-pocket medical expenditures near the end of life.
OBJECTIVES: Elderly widows are three times as likely to live in poverty as older married people. This study investigates the gap in poverty, income, and wealth between these groups. Focus is placed on the role played by out-of-pocket medical expenditures spent on dying spouses. METHODS: A national panel survey of people age 70 and older in 1993 was used. Income, poverty, wealth, and out-of-pocket expenditures were examined before and after widowhood, with comparisons made with couples not experiencing a death. RESULTS: Forty-four percent of the difference in economic status between widow(er)s and married elderly persons was due to disparities in economic status that existed prior to widowhood. The remaining 56% was due to factors more directly related to the death of a spouse, including the loss of income and expenses associated with dying. On average, out-of-pocket medical expenditures in the final 2 years of life were equal to 30% of the couple's annual income. For couples in the bottom quarter of the income distribution, these expenditures were 70% of their income. DISCUSSION: As policy makers continue to debate expansions and reforms of Medicare, the potential effects of these reforms on economic well-being, particularly among widows, should be considered.
Adaptation, Psychological↗
Extended input-output models: progress and potential.
"This article presents a critical survey of research on extended input-output models, emphasizing recent developments in demographic-economic and socio-economic analysis. Basic principles of model design and construction are reviewed, by reference to a representative selection of extended models. Two research themes--labor market analysis and income distribution--are pursued in greater detail as examples of the directions of current work. A comparison is made between extended models and social accounting matrices."
Economics↗