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

Author

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  • Grönqvist, Hans
  • Johansson, Per
  • Niknami, Susan
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.

Suggested Citation

  • Grönqvist, Hans & Johansson, Per & Niknami, Susan, 2012. "Income inequality and health: Lessons from a refugee residential assignment program," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 617-629.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:31:y:2012:i:4:p:617-629
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2012.05.003
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    Cited by:

    1. Jonathan Wadsworth, 2013. "Mustn't Grumble: Immigration, Health and Health Service Use in the UK and Germany," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 34(1), pages 55-82, March.
    2. Nekby, Lena & Pettersson-Lidbom, Per, 2012. "Revisiting the Relationship between Ethnic Diversity and Preferences for Redistribution," Research Papers in Economics 2012:9, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    3. Beine, Michel & Bertinelli, Luisito & Cömertpay, Rana & Litina, Anastasia & Maystadt, Jean-François, 2021. "A gravity analysis of refugee mobility using mobile phone data," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    4. Michel Beine & Luisito Bertinelli & rana Comertpay & Anastasia Litina & Jean-François Maystadt & Benteng Zou, 2019. "Refugee Mobility: Evidence from Phone Data in Turkey," DEM Discussion Paper Series 19-01, Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg.
    5. Thomas Schober & Katrin Zocher, 2018. "Health care utilization of refugees," CDL Aging, Health, Labor working papers 2018-08, The Christian Doppler (CD) Laboratory Aging, Health, and the Labor Market, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    6. Owen O'Donnell & Eddy Van Doorslaer & Tom Van Ourti, 2013. "Health and Inequality," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-170/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    7. Nisar Ahmad & Shahbaz Khan, 2021. "Impact of Income Inequality on Health Status in South Asian Countries: A Panel Data Analysis," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(2), pages 205-219.
    8. Keloharju, Matti & Knüpfer, Samuli & Tåg, Joacim, 2020. "CEO Health," Working Paper Series 1326, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 30 May 2022.
    9. Hasager, Linea & Jørgensen, Mia, 2024. "Sick of Your Poor Neighborhood? Quasi-Experimental Evidence on Neighborhood Effects on Health," IZA Discussion Papers 16949, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Matz Dahlberg & Madhinee Valeyatheepillay, 2019. "On the Anatomy of a Refugee Dispersal Policy: Neighborhood Integration and Dynamic Sorting," ifo Working Paper Series 285, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    11. Lena Nekby & Per Pettersson‐Lidbom, 2017. "Revisiting the Relationship between Ethnic Diversity and Preferences for Redistribution: Comment," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 119(2), pages 268-287, April.
    12. Kang, Songman & Son, Hyelim & Song, B.K., 2023. "The effect of housing price inequality on mental health," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    13. Michel Beine & Luisito Bertinelli & Rana Cömertpay & Anastasia Litina & Jean-François Maystadt, 2020. "The Gravity Model of Forced Displacement Using Mobile Phone Data," DEM Discussion Paper Series 20-13, Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg.
    14. Jonathan Wadsworth, 2012. "Musn’t Grumble. Immigration, Health and Health Service Use in the UK and Germany," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 1221, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    15. Grönqvist, Hans & Niknami, Susan & Robling, P-O, 2015. "Childhood Exposure to Segregation and Long-Run Criminal Involvement - Evidence from the “Whole of Sweden” Strategy#," Working Paper Series 1/2015, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
    16. Björkegren, Evelina, 2018. "Neighborhoods and youth health: Everybody needs good neighbors?," Working Paper Series 2018:10, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    17. Nisar Ahmad & Moodhi Raid & Jumah Alzyadat & Hisham Alhawal, 2023. "Impact of urbanization and income inequality on life expectancy of male and female in South Asian countries: a moderating role of health expenditures," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Income inequality; Immigration; Quasi-experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

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