The Impact of Socioeconomic Status on Health over the Life-Course

Abstract

Using data from the PSID, across the life course SES impacts future health outcomes, although the primary influence is education and not an individual’s financial resources in whatever form they are received. That conclusion appears to be robust whether the financial resources are income or wealth or whether the financial resources represent new information such as the largely unanticipated wealth that was a consequence of the recent stock market boom. Finally, this conclusion is robust across new health outcomes that take place across the short and intermediate time frames of up to 15 years in the future.