There is a growing literature showing an association between higher family income and better child health. This paper uses cohort data with rich information on mother's early life events, her health, child-health-related behaviours, and her child's health to examine this association for the UK and to identify some of the mechanisms through which income affects child health. The paper examines the cross-sectional association between income and health, finds the expected association, but concludes that the association with current income cannot be distinguished from one between permanent income and child health. It then focuses on the mechanisms by which income translates into better child health; these include parental behaviours that may affect child health and parental health, including maternal mental health. Controlling for these factors, there is almost no direct impact of income. A significant role is played by mother's own health, particularly her mental health. No clear role is played by child-health production behaviours of the mother. Examining the maternal mental health-child health link in more detail suggests a role for maternal anxiety and somaticism.
This article analyses the economic disadvantage experienced by disabled persons of working age using data from the British Household Panel Survey. We argue that there are three sources of disadvantage among disabled persons: pre-existing disadvantage among those who become disabled (a ‘selection’ effect), the effect of disability onset itself, and the effects associated with remaining disabled post-onset. We show that employment rates fall with disability onset, and continue to fall the longer a disability spell lasts, whereas average income falls sharply with onset but then recovers subsequently (though not to pre-onset levels).
Little is known about the income dynamics of retirement in Britain, in part because of a lack of data. The information is of some topical interest given the growing number of older people, the trend towards earlier retirement, the decline in the value of the basic state pension, the growing reliance on occupational and private pensions, and continuing relatively high poverty rates among people in old age. This paper considers the important question of income and retirement and, in particular, the association between transitions into retirement and the probability of becoming poor. It is based on longitudinal data from the British Household Panel Survey waves 1–9, covering 1991–1999. We also relate differences in poverty entry probabilities among the retired to differences in factors such as a retiree's health, housing tenure, age and sex, education, labour market status and history, household composition and spouse's characteristics.
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