Work

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

Year: 2012

Type: preprint

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.

Source: RePEc: Research Papers in Economics

Authors: Hans Grönqvist, Per Johansson, Susan Niknami

Institutions: Stockholm University, Uppsala University, IZA - Institute of Labor Economics

Language: English

Topic: Health disparities and outcomes

Subfield: Health

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, Good health and well-being, No poverty

Open Access status: green

Funder: Forskningsrådet för Arbetsliv och Socialvetenskap

OpenAlex ID: W3124225252