Declining Mortality Inequality within Cities during the Health Transition
American Economic Review
vol. 105,
no. 5, May 2015
(pp. 564-69)
Abstract
In the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century, large cities had extremely high death rates from infectious disease. Within major cities such as New York City and Philadelphia, there was significant variation at any point in time in the mortality rate across neighborhoods. Between 1900 and 1930 neighborhood mortality convergence took place in New York City and Philadelphia. We document these trends and discuss their consequences for neighborhood quality of life dynamics and the economic incidence of who gains from effective public health interventions.Citation
Costa, Dora L., and Matthew E. Kahn. 2015. "Declining Mortality Inequality within Cities during the Health Transition." American Economic Review, 105 (5): 564-69. DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20151070Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D63 Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
- I12 Health Behavior
- N31 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
- N32 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: U.S.; Canada: 1913-
- N91 Regional and Urban History: U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
- N92 Regional and Urban History: U.S.; Canada: 1913-
- R23 Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics