The Impact of Low Income on Child Health: Evidencefrom a Birth Cohort Study

There is a growing literature that shows that higher family income is associatedwith better health for children. Wealthier parents may have more advantagedchildren because they have more income to buy health care or because parentalwealth is associated with beneficial behaviours or because parental health isassociated with both income and children’s health. The policy implications ofthese transmission mechanisms are quite different. We attempt to unpick thecorrelation between income and health by examining routes by which parentaldisadvantage is transmitted into child disadvantage. Using a UK cohort studythat has rich information on mother’s early life events, her health, herbehaviours that may affect child health, and her child’s health, we examine theimpact of being in low income compared to that of mother child health relatedbehaviours and mother’s own health on child health. We find children frompoorer households have poorer health. But we find the direct impact of incomeis small. A larger role is played by mother’s own health and events in her earlylife. No clear role is played by mother child health production behaviours.[...]