Full Citation
Title: SISTERS IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY: THE EFFECT OF A MOTHER’S CHILDHOOD ON THE HEALTH-INCOME GRADIENT
Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis
Publication Year: 2020
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Abstract: The positive relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and health has been observed and established across many fields. This paper looks to extend the literature by first, documenting a relationship between health and income through child mortality rates in the early 20th century U.S. and second, examining whether the relationship is causal. I construct a dataset that finds mothers in their childhood household and test whether there is omitted variable bias with the mother’s childhood household socioeconomic status. I find that a one standard deviation increase in husband’s occupational wealth is associated with a decrease in the child mortality rate of 20.7 deaths per 1000 children ever born. The childhood socioeconomic status of both parents also play an independent role in the child mortality rate, as a one standard deviation increase in grandfather’s occupational wealth is associated with a decrease in the child mortality rate of 8.6 and 11.4 deaths per 1000 children ever born (respectively for the wife and husband’s childhood SES). These findings support the existing literature. My attempt to isolate causality further through a fixed effects strategy does not yield a rigorous answer but provides possible intuition into future results.
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Authors: Siegel, Sarah Combelles
Institution: Miami University
Department: Department of Economics
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Pages: 49
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Health, Work, Family, and Time
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