Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise: Socioeconomic Status, Poor Health in Childhood, and Human Capital Development

Janet Currie

doi:10.1257/jel.47.1.87

journal article Mar 01, 2009

Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise: Socioeconomic Status, Poor Health in Childhood, and Human Capital Development

Janet Currie

Journal of Economic Literature Vol. 47 No. 1 pp. 87-122 · American Economic Association

View at Publisher Save 10.1257/jel.47.1.87

Abstract

There are many possible pathways between parental education, income, and health, and between child health and education, but only some of them have been explored in the literature. This essay focuses on links between parental socioeconomic status (as measured by education, income, occupation, or in some cases area of residence) and child health, and between child health and adult education or income. Specifically, I ask two questions: What is the evidence regarding whether parental socioeconomic status affects child health? And, what is the evidence relating child health to future educational and labor market outcomes? I show that there is now strong evidence of both links, suggesting that health could play a role in the intergenerational transmission of economic status.

Topics

No keywords indexed for this article. Browse by subject →

References

115

[1]

10.1016/s0304-4076(02)00145-8

[2]

10.1367/1539-4409(2002)002<0382:raidic>2.0.co;2

[3]

Is the 1918 Influenza Pandemic Over? Long‐Term Effects of In Utero Influenza Exposure in the Post‐1940 U.S. Population

Douglas Almond

Journal of Political Economy 10.1086/507154

[4]

Chay Kenneth Y. Quarterly Journal of Economics (2005)

[5]

10.1257/000282805774669943

[6]

10.1067/mai.2000.105226

[7]

10.1042/cs0950115

[8]

Dhuey Elizabeth Quarterly Journal of Economics (2006)

[9]

10.1093/wbro/11.1.23

[10]

10.1086/261039

[11]

10.1086/261609

[12]

10.1162/003465304323031139

[13]

Currie Janet Risky Behavior among Youths: An Economic Analysis, ed. Jonathan Gruber (2001)

[14]

10.1162/qjec.122.1.409

[15]

10.1016/s0277-9536(00)00230-6

[16]

Disease and Development: Evidence from Hookworm Eradication in the American South

H. Bleakley

The Quarterly Journal of Economics 10.1162/qjec.121.1.73

[17]

10.1001/archpedi.1994.02170040043007

[18]

10.2307/1602387

[19]

10.2307/1131822

[20]

10.1001/archpedi.1995.02170180095018

[21]

10.1177/000992289503401103

[22]

10.1016/s0091-6749(03)01606-3

[23]

10.1111/j.1469-7610.2006.01636.x

[24]

10.1016/j.jhealeco.2004.09.008

[25]

10.1257/000282802762024520

[26]

10.2307/2657557

[27]

10.1126/science.1083968

[28]

10.2307/3559022

[29]

10.1162/00335530360698513

[30]

10.2307/2657467

[31]

10.2307/3090189

[32]

10.1001/jama.290.15.2023

[33]

10.1177/1087054705280413

[34]

Heckman James J. Unpublished manuscript, University of Chicago, Department of Economics. Presented at the Yale Conference on Macro and Labor Economics (2006)

[35]

Hotz Joseph Social Inequality, ed. Kathryn M. Neckerman (2004)

[36]

10.1257/aer.89.2.245

[37]

10.1377/hlthaff.26.2.331

[38]

10.1162/003355303322552856

[39]

10.1086/511377

[40]

10.1162/003355305774268219

[41]

10.1257/000282803322655563

[42]

10.1016/j.jhealeco.2006.03.001

[43]

10.1257/089533003769204371

[44]

10.1073/pnas.0700035104

[45]

10.1136/bmj.316.7145.1631

[46]

10.1162/0033553041502216

[47]

10.2307/3004028

[48]

10.1126/science.1546291

[49]

10.1257/aer.90.2.393

[50]

10.1093/ije/20.4.833

Showing 50 of 115 references

Cited By

1,016

The Causal Effect of an Income Shock on Children’s Human Capital

Cristina Borra, Ana Costa-Ramón · 2026

Journal of Labor Economics

Effects of income on infant health: Evidence from the expanded child tax credit and pandemic stimulus checks

Wei Lyu, George L. Wehby · 2025

Journal of Health Economics

Long-term impacts of growth and development monitoring: Evidence from routine health examinations in early childhood

Yinhe Liang, Xiaobo Peng · 2025

Journal of Health Economics

Mass vaccination and educational attainment: Evidence from the 1967–68 Measles Eradication Campaign

Philipp Barteska, Sonja Dobkowitz · 2023

Journal of Health Economics

Unraveling the South Asian enigma: concurrent manifestations of child anthropometric failures and their determinants in selected South Asian countries

Sabeen Saif, Sofia Anwar · 2023

BMC Nutrition

Economic Distress and Children’s Mental Health: Evidence from the Brazilian High-Risk Cohort Study for Mental Conditions

L F Fontes, M Mrejen · 2023

The Economic Journal

Obesity, Poverty and Public Policy

Rachel Griffith · 2022

The Economic Journal

The Effects of Fluoride in Drinking Water

Linuz Aggeborn, Mattias Öhman · 2021

Journal of Political Economy

The Long-term Impact of Preventative Public Health Programs

Lauren Hoehn-Velasco · 2020

The Economic Journal

The effect of birth weight on behavioral problems in early adolescence: New evidence from monozygotic twins

Stine Møllegaard · 2020

Economics & Human Biology

How Well Targeted Are Soda Taxes?

Pierre Dubois, Rachel Griffith · 2020

American Economic Review

Effects of quantity of education on health: A regression discontinuity design approach based on the Chinese Cultural Revolution

Hai Zhong · 2016

China Economic Review

Shopping Around: How Households Adjusted Food Spending Over the Great Recession

Rachel Griffith, Martin O'Connell · 2015

Economica

Maternal Education and Investments in Children's Health

Kate C. Prickett, Jennifer March Augustine · 2015

Journal of Marriage and the Family

Handedness, Health and Cognitive Development: Evidence from Children in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

David W. Johnston, Michael E. R. Nicholls · 2012

Journal of the Royal Statistical So...

Heterogeneity in Human Capital Investments: High School Curriculum, College Major, and Careers

Joseph G. Altonji, Erica Blom · 2012

Annual Review of Economics

Metrics

1,016

Citations

115

References

Details

Published: Mar 01, 2009
Vol/Issue: 47(1)
Pages: 87-122

Authors

J

Janet Currie

Columbia University.

Cite This Article

Janet Currie (2009). Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise: Socioeconomic Status, Poor Health in Childhood, and Human Capital Development. Journal of Economic Literature, 47(1), 87-122. https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.47.1.87

Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise: Socioeconomic Status, Poor Health in Childhood, and Human Capital Development

You May Also Like