Mortality, Human Capital and Persistent Inequality

Shankha Chakraborty and Mausumi Das ()

University of Oregon Economics Department Working Papers from University of Oregon Economics Department

Abstract: Available evidence suggests high intergenerational correlation of economic status, and persistent disparities in health status between the rich and the poor. This paper proposes a novel mechanism linking the two. We introduce health human capital into a two-period overlapping generations model. Private health investment improves the probability of surviving from the first period of life to the next and, along with education, enhances an individual’s labor productivity. Poorer parents are of poor health, unable to invest much in reducing mortality risk and improving their human capital. Consequently, they leave less for their progeny. Despite convex preferences, technology and complete markets, initial differences in economic and health status may perpetuate across generations.

Keywords: Life Expectancy; Health; Human Capital; Income Distribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I20 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34
Date: 2003-03-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-hea
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://economics.uoregon.edu/papers/UO-2003-11_Chakraborty_Mortality.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Mortality, Human Capital and Persistent Inequality (2010)
Journal Article: Mortality, Human Capital and Persistent Inequality (2005)
Working Paper: Mortality, Human Capital and Persistent Inequality (2004)
Working Paper: Mortality, Human Capital and Persistent Inequality (2003)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ore:uoecwp:2003-11

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in University of Oregon Economics Department Working Papers from University of Oregon Economics Department Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Bill Harbaugh ().