Child Health and Income in Australia

What is it about?

This article examines whether and how health shocks (as measured by the onset of chronic conditions) contribute to explain the association between income–child health. It also investigates whether the contemporaneous or cumulative effects of income play important mitigating roles. We exploit a rich panel dataset with three panel waves called the Longitudinal Study of Australian children. We find that an apparent income gradient becomes relatively attenuated in our dataset when the cumulative and contemporaneous effects of household income are distinguished. Our results also indicate that the income–child health gradient may become statistically insignificant when controlling for parental health and health-related behaviours or unobserved heterogeneity.

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