The Intergenerational Persistence of Inequalities in Health and Income: Where can we target policy to best reduce inequalities?
Equality of opportunity and reducing health inequalities has been a priority of the Government for the past twenty years. Different governments have emphasised different policies to achieve these goals. There is very little research in the UK or globally on the intergenerational persistence of health and if and how this relates to the intergenerational correlation in income. The project aimed to utilise data from the British Household Panel Survey and Understanding Society Survey to firstly investigate generational and intergenerational inequalities in health and income across different age groups (16-25, 26-44, 45-64, 65+) to determine how inequalities have changed between and within different age groups over the period 1991 to 2016. Specifically it investigated how successful policy targeted at reducing childhood and pensioner poverty and health inequalities has been and identify age groups that may need to be targeted by future policy. The second step was to investigate the intergenerational persistence within families of physical and mental health. Differences by socioeconomic status were explored. This was compared with income equality within families to understand if the intergenerational persistence in health and income are moving in the same direction or if there is a divergence. This will help to identify where there may be a need for policy to ensure equality of opportunity and reduce the negative effects of inequalities on young people’s chances.
Outputs
Papers
- Brown H (2020) Understanding the role of policy on inequalities in the intergenerational correlation in health and wages: Evidence from the UK from 1991–2017. PLoS ONE 15(6): e0234737. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234737
Policy impacts
- The work has been presented in January 2020 to South Tyneside Health Scrutiny Panel and in September 2021 to Middlesbrough Health Scrutiny Panel
Read Heather’s blog about her fellowship.
Find our more about Heather’s work on her profile page.
