Municipal Ethnic Composition and Disparities in COVID-19 Infections in New Jersey: A Blinder–Oaxaca Decomposition Analysis

Yuqi Wang (), Laurent Reyes, Emily A. Greenfield and Sarah R. Allred
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Yuqi Wang: Department of Social Work, China Youth University of Political Studies, Beijing 100089, China
Laurent Reyes: School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Emily A. Greenfield: School of Social Work, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA
Sarah R. Allred: Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ 08102, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 21, 1-25

Abstract: COVID-19 has disproportionally impacted Latinx and Black communities in the US. Our study aimed to extend the understanding of ethnic disparities in COVID-19 case rates by using a unique dataset of municipal case rates across New Jersey (NJ) during the first 17 months of the pandemic. We examined the extent to which there were municipal-level ethnic disparities in COVID-19 infection rates during three distinct spikes in case rates over this period. Furthermore, we used the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition analysis to identify municipal-level exposure and vulnerability factors that contributed to ethnic disparities and how the contributions of these factors changed across the three initial waves of infection. Two clear results emerged. First, in NJ, the COVID-19 infection risk disproportionally affected Latinx communities across all three waves during the first 17 months of the pandemic. Second, the exposure and vulnerability factors that most strongly contributed to higher rates of infection in Latinx and Black communities changed over time as the virus, alongside medical and societal responses to it, also changed. These findings suggest that understanding and addressing ethnicity-based COVID-19 disparities will require sustained attention to the systemic and structural factors that disproportionately place historically marginalized ethnic communities at greater risk of contracting COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; racial/ethnic disparity; health disparity; infection rate; Latinx (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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