The role of permanent income and family structure in the determination of child health in Canada

Citation
Lj. Curtis et al., The role of permanent income and family structure in the determination of child health in Canada, HEALTH ECON, 10(4), 2001, pp. 287-302
Citations number
44
Categorie Soggetti
Economics,"Health Care Sciences & Services
Journal title
HEALTH ECONOMICS
ISSN journal
10579230 → ACNP
Volume
10
Issue
4
Year of publication
2001
Pages
287 - 302
Database
ISI
SICI code
1057-9230(200106)10:4<287:TROPIA>2.0.ZU;2-D
Abstract
We use data from the Ontario Child Health Study (OCHS) to provide the first Canadian estimates of how the empirical association between child health a nd both low-income and family status (lone-mother versus two-parent) change s when we re-estimate the model with pooled data. Two waves of data provide a better indication of the family's long-run level of economic resources t han does one wave. Our measures of health status include categorical indica tors and the health utility score derived from the Health Utilities Index M ark 2 (HU2) system. Consistent with findings from other countries, we find that most outcomes are more strongly related to low-average income tin 1982 and 1986) than to low-current income in either year. Unlike some previous research, we find the quantitative impact of low-income on child health to be modest to large. Lone-mother status is negatively associated with most o utcomes, but the lone-mother coefficients did not change significantly when we switched from low-current income to low-average income. This implies th at the lone-mother coefficient in single cross-sections is not just a proxy for low-permanent income. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.