Healthier is Wealthier
By 2008, those in the top third of the health distribution had accumulated, on average, more than 50 percent more assets than those in the bottom third of the health distribution. This “asset cost of poor health” appears to be larger for persons with substantial 1992 asset balances than for those with lower balances.
Full NBER study on the correlation between poor health and asset accumulation.
Interesting article. Nevertheless, two thoughts come to mind: (1) the death rate is 100%, everyone dies, no matter what; and (2) you can’t take your assets with you, there are no luggage racks on hearses.
Lots of studies have found that healthier is wealthier. Usually the implication is that more wealth leads to better health, however. This study suggests the opposite: that better health leads to more wealth.
I’m still not convinced that one variable “causes” the other. Can’t they interact?
Aren’t a lot of things “correlated” with poor/good health? Seems it would be more interesting to find a causal link.
It makes sense that if you’re spending time and money trying to get well, that’s time and money you can’t spend on furthering your career/salary.
I’m not sure that that’s much different than saying that smarter people have a larger amount of assets than not-so-smart people. An advantage is an advantage.
There is a fair amount of debate about whether unhealthy people are poor because they cannot work; or if poor people are unhealthy because they have unhealthy lifestyle habits. In virtually all societies around the world, wealth and health are highly correlated. Moreover, there is a high degree of correlation between education and health.
This seems to be circular causality. Which suggests that the root causes could be quite subtle, perhaps even temporary, but are then amplified in a positive feedback loop.
Wonder how they corrected for selection bias? There’s evidence that people with fewer assets are often more prone to take risks that have health conseequences.