Beyond Income
Health, Wealth, and Racial Welfare Gaps Among Older Americans
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10967646 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sayorn Chin (0000-0002-5745-8595, Lafayette College), Ray Miller (0000-0001-6033-0464, Colorado State University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 63 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 187-211 |
| Publication date | 2026-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Demography (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0070-3370 • E-ISSN: 1533-7790 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/00703370-12460649 |
| PMID | 41663233 |
| OpenAlex | W7128507912 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 68 |
We estimate racial and ethnic disparities in well-being among older Americans using longitudinal data and an expected utility framework that incorporates differences in consumption, leisure, health, mortality, and wealth. Our analysis broadly indicates that racial and ethnic inequality is greater than suggested by other welfare metrics such as consumption or life expectancy alone. Decomposition exercises show that a majority of the estimated welfare gaps are determined by age 60 initial conditions as opposed to racial and ethnic differences in dynamic processes after age 60. Additional counterfactuals suggest that eliminating common heath risk factors such as hypertension or diabetes in late life only marginally closes overall welfare gaps. These simulations suggest that policies aimed at closing racial and ethnic gaps in late life may be more successful and efficient if targeted earlier in the life cycle
Consumption (sociology · Counterfactual conditional · Ethnic group · Inequality · Life course approach · Life expectancy · Longitudinal data · Population · Welfare · Financial Literacy, Pension, Retirement Analysis · Health disparities and outcomes · Insurance, Mortality, Demography, Risk Management
The Environmental “Riskscape” and Social Inequality
Disparities in Wealth by Race and Ethnicity in the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances
Beyond GDP? Welfare across Countries and Time
Racial and Ethnic Differences in Wealth in the Health and Retirement Study
Gradient of Disability across the Socioeconomic Spectrum in the United States
Should Health Studies Measure Wealth?
Wealth Inequality and Intergenerational Links
Our future
Subjective wellbeing, health, and ageing
Childhood Development and Access to Nature
Beyond GDP
The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children
The Measurement and Decomposition of Multi-Dimensional Inequality
Multivariate Measures of Well-Being and an Analysis of Inequality in the Michigan Data
Health, Longevity, and Welfare Inequality of Older Americans
The Effects of Race and Racial Concordance on Patient-Physician Communication
Gender Differences in Caregiver Stressors, Social Resources, and Health
A critical review of the literature on social and leisure activity and wellbeing in later life
Self-Rated Health and Mortality
Income Inequality and the Persistence of Racial Economic Disparities
Differences in net worth between elderly black people and elderly white people
An Analysis of the Influence That Leisure Experiences Have on a Person's Mood State, Health and Wellbeing
Research note
Wealth Inequality Among Older Americans
Early-Life Origins of Life-Cycle Well-Being
The Value of Health and Longevity
Multiattribute and Single-Attribute Utility Functions for the Health Utilities Index Mark 3 System
What to Do about Missing Values in Time‐Series Cross‐Section Data
Cumulative Advantage/Disadvantage and the Life Course
Obama, Katrina, and the Persistence of Racial Inequality
Racial Differences in Physical and Mental Health
From social integration to health
Race-Ethnicity and Health Trajectories
The Sociology of Discrimination
Multidimensional Racial Inequality in the United States
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |