Life Expectancy for Low Education Groups in the US is Worsening

It is well known that there are significant socioeconomic gradients in mortality and morbidity, and there is a substantial literature on this subject. Nevertheless, there are many people who do not seem to find these trends concerning. Or at least, not concerning enough for society to act upon. Whatever about increasing relative differences, it is quite a different matter to see increases in actual mortality rates. Especially in a country like the US, and especially given the recent substantial increases in (average) life expectancy. This deserves more coverage and should be seen in the context of the similar pattern in real wages for certain groups.

The following NYT Article discusses the issue. The abstract for the article being cited is below.   

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/us/life-expectancy-for-less-educated-whites-in-us-is-shrinking.html?hp

Differences In Life Expectancy Due To Race And Educational Differences Are Widening, And Many May Not Catch Up

Health Affairs, August 2012, vol. 31 no. 8, 1803-1813

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/31/8/1803.abstract

    S. Jay Olshansky, Toni Antonucci, Lisa Berkman, Robert H. Binstock, Axel Boersch-Supan, John T. Cacioppo, Bruce A. Carnes, Laura L. Carstensen, Linda P. Fried, Dana P. Goldman, James Jackson, Martin Kohli, John Rother, Yuhui Zheng, John Rowe

Abstract

It has long been known that despite well-documented improvements in longevity for most Americans, alarming disparities persist among racial groups and between the well-educated and those with less education. In this article we update estimates of the impact of race and education on past and present life expectancy, examine trends in disparities from 1990 through 2008, and place observed disparities in the context of a rapidly aging society that is emerging at a time of optimism about the next revolution in longevity. We found that in 2008 US adult men and women with fewer than twelve years of education had life expectancies not much better than those of all adults in the 1950s and 1960s. When race and education are combined, the disparity is even more striking. In 2008 white US men and women with 16 years or more of schooling had life expectancies far greater than black Americans with fewer than 12 years of education—14.2 years more for white men than black men, and 10.3 years more for white women than black women. These gaps have widened over time and have led to at least two “Americas,” if not multiple others, in terms of life expectancy, demarcated by level of education and racial-group membership. The message for policy makers is clear: implement educational enhancements at young, middle, and older ages for people of all races, to reduce the large gap in health and longevity that persists today.

Demography and Inequality

 As discussed in this week's Economist:

As a country’s birthrate declines, people of working age make up a larger share of the population, which can fuel economic improvement. But a new study by Harvard School of Public Health researchers finds that lower birthrates raise income inequality within countries in the short-term; the birth rate of the wealthy begins to decline first and, according to the researchers, they are the first to reap the benefits of demographic change.

Microeconomic Foundations of the Demographic Dividend

David E. Bloom, David Canning, Günther Fink, Jocelyn E. Finlay

Abstract

The potential economic returns to the demographic transition are high. As countries move from a steady state with high mortality and high fertility to an equilibrium with low mortality and fewer children, lower dependency ratios, higher investment in human and physical capital as well as increased female labor force participation contribute to economic growth. In this paper, we analyze the demographic transition at the household level, investigating the distributional patterns of the economic and welfare benefits associated with the demographic transition across socioeconomic groups within countries and over time. We find large differences in the effects of the demographic transition across socioeconomic status (SES) groups in the early stages of the demographic transition, but also substantial behavioral change across all groups during phases of rapid fertility decline, so that the long-run effects of the demographic transition on inequality remain ambiguous.

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/pgda/WorkingPapers/2012/PGDA_WP_93.pdf

http://www.economist.com/node/21560247

http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2012/08/demography-and-inequality

Heights and human welfare: Recent developments and new directions

Heights and human welfare: Recent developments and new directions
Steckel, R.H.
Special Issue on Heights and Human Welfare
Explorations in Economic History, Volume 46, Issue 1, January 2009, Pages 1-23

Abstract

Since 1995 approximately 325 publications on stature have appeared in the social sciences, which is more than a four-fold increase in the rate of production relative to the period 1977-1994. The expansion occurred in several areas, but especially within economics, indicating that heights are now widely accepted as useful measure of human welfare. Much of this new work extends beyond the traditional bailiwick of anthropometric history, including biological welfare during economic and political crises; anthropometric determinants of wages; the welfare of women relative to men in the contemporary world; the fetal origins hypothesis; and inequality in the developing world. The approach has also expanded within economic history to consider the consequences of empire for colonials; the health of populations lacking traditional measures of social performance; the consequences of smallpox; and very long-term trends in health. Much has also been learned about socioeconomic aspects of inequality, the welfare implications of industrialization, and socioeconomic determinants of stature. The last is a work in progress and one may doubt whether sufficient longitudinal evidence will become available for a complete understanding of the variety and strength of pathways that affect human physical growth. 

 

Ungated Version:

http://cid.bcrp.gob.pe/biblio/Papers/NBER/2008/diciembre/w14536.pdf

New IZA Working Paper: Family Background, Self-Confidence and Economic Outcomes

IZA DP No. 6117

Antonio Filippin, Marco Paccagnella:

Family Background, Self-Confidence and Economic Outcomes

Abstract:
In this paper we analyze the role played by self-confidence, modeled as beliefs about one's ability, in shaping task choices. We propose a model in which fully rational agents exploit all the available information to update their beliefs using Bayes' rule, eventually learning their true type. We show that when the learning process does not convergence quickly to the true ability level, even small differences in initial confidence can result in diverging patterns of human capital accumulation between otherwise identical individuals. As long as initial differences in the level of self-confidence are correlated with the socioeconomic background (as a large body of empirical evidence suggests), self-confidence turns out to be a channel through which education and earnings inequalities are transmitted across generations. Our theory suggests that cognitive tests should take place as early as possible, in order to avoid that systematic differences in self-confidence among equally talented people lead to the emergence of gaps in the accumulation of human capital.

http://ftp.iza.org/dp6117.pdf

Schools do little to reduce or enlarge the gaps in skills that are present when children enter school

The American Family in Black and White: A Post-Racial Strategy for Improving Skills to Promote Equality

James J. Heckman

NBER Working Paper No. 16841
Issued in March 2011

In contemporary America, racial gaps in achievement are primarily due to gaps in skills. Skill gaps emerge early before children enter school. Families are major producers of those skills. Inequality in performance in school is strongly linked to inequality in family environments. Schools do little to reduce or enlarge the gaps in skills that are present when children enter school. Parenting matters, and the true measure of child advantage and disadvantage is the quality of parenting received. A growing fraction of American children across all race and ethnic groups is being raised in dysfunctional families. Investment in the early lives of children in disadvantaged families will help close achievement gaps. America currently relies too much on schools and adolescent remediation strategies to solve problems that start in the preschool years. Prevention is likely to be more cost-effective than remediation. Voluntary, culturally sensitive support for parenting is a politically and economically palatable strategy that addresses problems common to all racial and ethnic groups.

Education and the budget

Lots could be, and doubtless will be, said about the budget. But it is worth looking at some of the changes regarding education. The increase in higher level fees is 500Euro and only for the first child in the family (no increase for the second kid). So the government has gone out of its way to protect the relatively well off who dominate university. Meanwhile the Educational Disadvantage Budget has been slashed by 60% and student grants are to be cut by 4%.
Well at least you know what the government's priority is: protect the middle class.

A Family Affair: Intergenerational Social Mobility

Another interesting OECD report examines social mobility. Some of the conclusions:

Across European OECD countries, there is a substantial wage premium associated with growing up in a better-educated family, and a corresponding penalty with growing up in a less-educated family. The premium and penalty are particularly large in southern European countries, as well as in the United Kingdom. The penalty is also high in Luxembourg and Ireland. In these countries the wage premium is more than 20%, while the penalty is some 16% or more (relative to wages earned by individuals raised in a family with average education).

Education policies play a key role in explaining observed differences in intergenerational social mobility across countries. For example, higher enrolment in early childhood education is associated with a lower influence of parental background on students’ achievement in secondary education. By contrast, school practices that group students into different curricula at early ages come with less social mobility in educational achievement. Moreover, increasing the social mix within schools appears to boost performance of disadvantaged students without any apparent negative effects on overall performance.

Redistributive and income support policies seem to be associated with greater intergenerational social mobility.

Evaluating the Impact of the UCD New ERA Widening Participation Initiative

This is the title of a half-day conference to be held in UCD on December 3rd. Full details (including where to RSVP) are available here. The study examines the performance of the New ERA programme across 3 domains: increased access from disadvantaged school, retention rates and overall exam performance. Kevin Denny will present the results. Susan Dynarski, (Professor of Education and Public Policy, University of Michigan, USA) will deliver the keynote address.

Seminar on Health Inequalities

Following on from Kevin's post:

'The Spirit Level: why more equal societies almost always do better' Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett Seminar, Dublin

4 June 2009, Dublin

The Institute of Public Health in Ireland (IPH) are hosting a seminar with authors Richard Wilkinson and Kate Picket to discuss their new book, The Spirit Level.

The Spirit Level shows that more unequal societies are bad for almost everyone - rich as well as poor. This ground-breaking book, based on thirty years research, opens up a major new approach to improving our health, happiness and environmental sustainability. It demonstrates that achieving greater income equality is the key to addressing our social ills and improving quality of life for everyone.

Hear the evidence and make up your own mind!

Richard Wilkinson is Professor Emeritus at the University of Nottingham Medical School, and Kate Pickett is a Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology at the University of York.

5.00 – 6.30pm on Thursday 4 June, Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, Kildare Street,
Dublin 2

As places are limited they will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Please reply to sharon.brennan@publichealth.ie to attend the Belfast event or aisling.oconnor@publichealth.ie to attend the Dublin event.

Health & inequality

The Institute for Public Health is hosting a seminar with authors Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett to discuss their new book The Spirit Level which argues that more unequal societies are bad for almost everyone - rich as well as poor." This ground-breaking book, based on thirty years research, opens up a major new approach to improving our health, quality of life and environmental sustainability" ‘The Spirit Level: why more equal societies almost always do better June 3rd.

For a different perspective see Angus Deaton's 2003 JEL paper:
www.princeton.edu/~deaton/downloads/Health_Inequality_and_Economic_Development.pdf

Inequality and Human Development - Cunha Heckman IZA

The Economics and Psychology of Inequality and Human Development
by Flavio Cunha, James J. Heckman
(February 2009)

Abstract:
Recent research on the economics of human development deepens understanding of the origins of inequality and excellence. It draws on and contributes to personality psychology and the psychology of human development. Inequalities in family environments and investments in children are substantial. They causally affect the development of capabilities. Both cognitive and noncognitive capabilities determine success in life but to varying degrees for different outcomes. An empirically determined technology of capability formation reveals that capabilities are self-productive and cross-fertilizing and can be enhanced by investment. Investments in capabilities are relatively more productive at some stages of a child's life cycle than others. Optimal child investment strategies differ depending on target outcomes of interest and on the nature of adversity in a child's early years. For some configurations of early disadvantage and for some desired outcomes, it is efficient to invest relatively more in the later years of childhood than in the early years.

IZA Discussion Paper on Inequality in Ireland

Does Growth Affect the Nature of Inequality? Ireland 1994–2001
by Aedin Doris, Donal O'Neill, Olive Sweetman
(September 2008)

Abstract:
Much has been written about the relationship between economic growth and aggregate inequality in recent years. In this paper we extend this literature by examining whether economic growth affects, not the level, but rather the nature of inequality. To do this we focus on the Irish economy which experienced a remarkable boom starting in 1994. We analyse the covariance structure of earnings in Ireland to examine whether this rapid growth affected earnings dynamics over the period. Using panel data for the years 1994–2001, we show that, while permanent inequality in Ireland is high, the degree of persistence of inequality was not significantly affected by the rapid growth in the economy.

http://ftp.iza.org/dp3701.pdf

Literacy not intelligence moderates the relationships between economic development, income inequality and health

Abstract:Objectives. Kanazawa (2006) presented data allegedly supporting a racist version of evolutionary psychology that claims that the populations of wealthier and more egalitarian societies live longer and stay healthier, not because they are wealthier and more egalitarian, but because they are more intelligent. The objectives of this study are: (i) to determine the relationship between IQ and literacy in Kanazawa's sample of countries and (ii) to reanalyse Kanazawa's dataset using measures of literacy in lieu of national IQ test scores.

Method. Correlation and regression were employed.
Results. National literacy scores across the countries in the sample are highly skewed. In spite of this, the literacy measures are highly correlated with alleged differences in national IQ (r = .83-.86). The measure of literacy together with economic development (GDPpc) and income inequality (Gini coefficient) control at least 59-64% of the variance in national life expectancy at birth.

Conclusions. There is no scientific justification for believing that alleged intelligence differences play any role in explaining international differences in health status. Measures of alleged national IQ scores are highly confounded with differences in literacy. Literacy is a key factor in the health of any community and policies designed to enhance the literacy of a population are expected to lead to significant improvements in health status.

Marks (2007)


The Kanazawa paper 'IQ and the wealth of states' and his paper Mind the gapin intelligence: Re-examining the relationship between inequality and health have been criticised in several papers:

Dickins et al. (2007)

Kanazawa (2006) has put forward an evolutionarily grounded theory which claims that individuals in wealthier and more egalitarian societies live longer and stay healthier not because they are wealthier or more egalitarian but because they are more intelligent (2006: 637). The claim rests on an argument which asserts that general intelligence is a solution to evolutionarily novel problems and that most dangers to health in contemporary society are evolutionarily novel. Kanazawa also claims that this relationship does not hold in sub-Saharan Africa. These claims are based on a cross-national analysis which finds a positive correlation between 'national' IQ scores and mortality data. The implication is that intelligence is the principal factor determining longevity in the rest of the world, regardless of issues such as adequacy of diet and availability of health care. Kanazawa's theoretical claims about the evolution of general intelligence as a domain-specific adaptation are inconsistent with adaptationist analysis: natural selection does not solve general problems. The assumptions that sub-Saharan Africa is more representative of the evolutionary past than is the rest of the world, and that most hazards to health in contemporary society are evolutionarily novel, are implausible. The methods used are inadequate because Kanazawa argues for causation from correlation and fails to consider alternative explanations. The IQ data are flawed for reasons to do with sample size and sampling, extrapolation and inconsistency across measures. Nor are they temporally compatible with the economic and demographic data

From Geoff (2007)
Kanazawa concludes that `wealthier and more egalitarian societies live longer and stay healthier … because they are more intelligent'. The result does not apply to sub-Saharan Africa, but this exception is explained by reference to his theory of evolutionary psychology, `The Savanna Principle'. We reanalyse the data, taking into account non-linearity in the relationship of GDP to life expectancy and find that the results no longer support his conclusions. We also argue that HIV prevalence rates are a more parsimonious explanation for differences between sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere.