Smith, James P. 2007. “The Impact of Socioeconomic Status on Health over the Life-Course.” Journal of Human Resources 42(4): 739–764.
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.
James P. Smith holds the RAND chair in Labor Market and Demographic Studies. He would like to thank the helpful advice and assistance from Bob Schoeni. Programming assistance of Patty St. Clair and David Rumpel is gratefully appreciated. This paper benefited from comments by participants at seminars at Princeton University and the Population Council. This research was supported by grants from NIA. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning May 2008 through April 2011 from James P. Smith, 1776 Main Street, PO Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138. smith@rand.org.