Waldmann RJ. Income distribution and infant mortality. Quarterly Journal of Economics 1992, 107: 1283-1302

An economist looks at the income inequality health relationship focussing on infant mortality. He finds that the infant mortality rate is related to the share of income enjoyed by the upper 5 % of the income distribution population. That is, statistically controlling for the incomes of the lowest 20%, the higher the share of the upper 5%, the higher the infant mortality. He points out that none of the usual factors thought to operate in producing health, such as the provision of medical services, the degree of urbanization, the extent of female literacy, fertility rates, etc. account for this relationship. It is another way of looking at the income distribution health relationship, that is consistent with the other findings here. He used World Bank data from both rich and poor countries. He concludes that considering one country that has higher measured real income in every income percentile than another country does not result in that country being better off as far as social welfare is concerned. This conflicts with the standard assumption made by economists.

Abstract

Comparing two countries in which the poor have equal real incomes, the one in which the rich are wealthier is likely to have a higher infant mortality rate. This anomalous result does not appear to spring from measurement error in estimating the income of the poor, and the association between high infant mortality and income inequality is still present after controlling for other factors such as education, medical personnel, and fertility. This positive association of infant mortality and income of the rich suggests that measured real incomes may be a poor measure of social welfare.

Keywords

• education
• Gini coefficient
• income
• income distribution
• income inequality
• inequality
• infant mortality
• international
• life expectancy
• mortality
• population health
• women