Poverty is strongly associated with worse health across countries and within countries across individuals. However, not all poor individuals suffer from poor health: the effects of poverty on health vary across place and time. In this review, we discuss the evidence documenting these patterns, and the reasons for the associations. We then provide an overview of what is known about policies that may improve the health of the poor. We focus primarily on the modern-day United States, but also discuss evidence from historical experiences and low- and middle-income countries. Throughout we discuss areas in need of future research.
Authors
- Acknowledgements & Disclosure
- We are grateful to Janet Currie, Sherry Glied, and Tom Vogl for their valuable comments on earlier drafts. Joanna Chi provided excellent research assistance. Adriana Lleras-Muney received support from the California Center for Population Research at UCLA (CCPR), which receives core support (P2C-HD041022) from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3386/w32866
- Pages
- 31
- Published in
- United States of America
Table of Contents
- NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES 1
- POVERTY AND HEALTH 1
- Adriana Lleras-Muney Hannes Schwandt Laura Wherry 1
- Working Paper 32866 httpwww.nber.orgpapersw32866 1
- NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge MA 02138 August 2024 1
- Poverty and Health Adriana Lleras-Muney Hannes Schwandt and Laura Wherry NBER Working Paper No. 32866 August 2024 JEL No. H50 I1 I14 I18 I30 2
- Adriana Lleras-Muney Department of Economics 9373 Bunche Hall UCLA Los Angeles CA 90095 and NBER allerasmuneygmail.com 2
- Hannes Schwandt School of Education and Social Policy Northwestern University 2120 Campus Drive Evanston Il 60208 and NBER schwandtnorthwestern.edu 2
- Laura Wherry Wagner Graduate School of Public Service New York University 105 East 17th Street New York NY 10003 and NBER laura.wherrynyu.edu 2
- I-Introduction II-Stylized Facts Stylized fact 1 Health improves with income at a greater rate among the poor. 3
- Stylized fact 2 Poverty does not condemn individuals to poor health. III. Why are poverty and health related 4
- π»π» π»π» πΏπΏππ πΌπΌ ππ πΏπΏππ ππ 4
- IV. Policy implications 14
- VI. Conclusions and Directions for Future Work 19
- References 21
- Figure 1 Household income and health in the United States today 30
- Figure 2 Life expectancy and household income across counties 31
