Racial Differences in Health in Long-Run Perspective: A Brief Introduction

Boustan, Leah Platt; Margo, Robert A.

doi:10.3386/w20765

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Research in history, sociology, economic history, and demography has documented how barriers that African Americans faced in acquiring safe housing (Acevedo-Garcia 2000; Boustan and Margo 2016;Collins and Thomasson 2004;Du Bois 1908;Eriksson and Niemesh 2016;Galishoff 1985;Roberts 2009;Zelner et al 2017), accessing urban social programs (Preston and Haines 1991) and medical innovations (Jayachandran et al 2010), and establishing economic security (Ewbank 1987) put them at greater risk of death from infectious disease (Sen 1998). Our results point to a need for more research in this area.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 76%

“…Other well-known causes of black infectious mortality, in contrast, are unlikely to explain the gap in the infectious mortality rates of black and white city dwellers. For instance, by 1900, malaria, a common cause of death in the South (Kitchens 2013), was rare in southern cities (Boustan and Margo 2016;Humphreys 2009). Research by Black et al (2015) and Eriksson and Niemesh (2016) has shown that the Great Migration increased mortality among African Americans at young and old ages.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Without the very recent release of complete-count census data with clean city and age variables, our analysis would not have been possible. 4 For instance,Boustan and Margo (2016) noted that national black life expectancy estimates derived from vital statistics data in the early twentieth century are likely understated because they are based primarily on northern states, whose black residents predominantly lived in cities (see alsoLogan and Parman 2014).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Regional and Racial Inequality in Infectious Disease Mortality in U.S. Cities, 1900–1948

2019

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In the first half of the twentieth century, the rate of death from infectious disease in the United States fell precipitously. Although this decline is well-known and well-documented, there is surprisingly little evidence about whether it took place uniformly across the regions of the United States. We use data on infectious disease deaths from all reporting U.S. cities to describe regional patterns in the decline of urban infectious mortality from 1900 to 1948. We report three main results. First, urban infectious mortality was higher in the South in every year from 1900 to 1948. Second, infectious mortality declined later in southern cities than in cities in the other regions. Third, comparatively high infectious mortality in southern cities was driven primarily by extremely high infectious mortality among African Americans. From 1906 to 1920, African Americans in cities experienced a rate of death from infectious disease that was greater than what urban whites experienced during the 1918 flu pandemic.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 76%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Regional and Racial Inequality in Infectious Disease Mortality in U.S. Cities, 1900–1948

2019

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“…African-Americans tend to be in worse health than whites at all ages (Boustan and Margo, 2014), a fact that is reflected both in higher rates of low birth weight and prematurity, and in higher death rates (Currie and Schwandt, 2016). Research over the past ten years has also shown that poor health in childhood is associated with poorer health and other outcomes in adulthood (see Almond, Currie and Duque (2017) for a recent review).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is It Who You Are or Where You Live? Residential Segregation and Racial Gaps in Childhood Asthma

Alexander¹,

Currie²

2017

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Higher asthma rates are one of the more obvious ways that health inequalities between African American and other children are manifested beginning in early childhood. In 2010, black asthma rates were double non-black rates. Some but not all of this difference can be explained by factors such as a higher incidence of low birth weight (LBW) among blacks; however, even conditional on LBW, blacks have a higher incidence of asthma than others. Using a unique data set based on the health records of all children born in New Jersey between 2006 and 2010, we show that when we split the data by whether or not children live in a "black" zip code, this racial difference in the incidence of asthma among LBW children entirely disappears. All LBW children in these zip codes, regardless of race, have a higher incidence of asthma. Our results point to the importance of residential segregation and neighborhoods in explaining persistent racial health disparities.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is it who you are or where you live? Residential segregation and racial gaps in childhood asthma

Alexander

Currie

2017

Journal of Health Economics

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Higher asthma rates are one of the more obvious ways that health inequalities between African American and other children are manifested beginning in early childhood. In 2010, black asthma rates were double non-black rates. Some but not all of this difference can be explained by factors such as a higher incidence of low birth weight (LBW) among blacks; however, even conditional on LBW, blacks have a higher incidence of asthma than others. Using a unique data set based on the health records of all children born in New Jersey between 2006 and 2010, we show that when we split the data by whether or not children live in a “black” zip code, this racial difference in the incidence of asthma among LBW children entirely disappears. All LBW children in these zip codes, regardless of race, have a higher incidence of asthma. Our results point to the importance of residential segregation and neighborhoods in explaining persistent racial health disparities.

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Racial Differences in Health in Long-Run Perspective: A Brief Introduction

Cited by 8 publications

References 28 publications

Regional and Racial Inequality in Infectious Disease Mortality in U.S. Cities, 1900–1948

Regional and Racial Inequality in Infectious Disease Mortality in U.S. Cities, 1900–1948

Is It Who You Are or Where You Live? Residential Segregation and Racial Gaps in Childhood Asthma

Is it who you are or where you live? Residential segregation and racial gaps in childhood asthma

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