Income inequality and health: Lessons from a refugee residential assignment program

Arbeitspapier

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.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 6554

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Health: General ; Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
• Subject: income inequality ; immigration ; quasi-experiment ; Einkommensverteilung ; Gesundheit ; Flüchtlinge ; Soziale Integration ; Schweden

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Grönqvist, Hans ; Johansson, Per ; Niknami, Susan
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2012

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/58647
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-201301212176
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET