Effects of Income Inequality during Early Childhood on Disability in Older Adulthood

Andrew Clarkwest, University of Michigan

This paper applies a life course perspective to the literature on income inequality and health. Previous work in the area has tended to compare inequality levels and health outcomes within a jurisdiction at the same point in time, or with crude lags that fail to reflect expected latency periods during an individual’s lifetime. Given the growing literature demonstrating the impact of early-life conditions on later health outcomes, I examine how income inequality at time of birth affects the disability rates of older adults. Using disability data from the 2000 Census, and Census income data from both 1940 and 2000, I find that state-level inequality at time of birth is positively associated with disability outcomes at age 60. This association is both stronger than and independent of the effect of inequality measured contemporaneously with the disability outcome. Issues of interpretation and implications for future research are also discussed.