Economic Freedom, Race, and Health Disparities Evidence from US States

The social determinants of health include the communities in which people reside. Associated with geographic areas are public policies that influence a variety of economic and social outcomes. The group of public policies associated with economic freedom have been found to be positively related to a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPublic finance review Vol. 46; no. 2; pp. 276 - 300
Main Authors Hall, Joshua C., Humphreys, Brad R., Ruseski, Jane E.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.03.2018
Subjects
economic freedom
propensity score matching
health disparities
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Summary:The social determinants of health include the communities in which people reside. Associated with geographic areas are public policies that influence a variety of economic and social outcomes. The group of public policies associated with economic freedom have been found to be positively related to a number of economic and social outcomes. In this article, we investigate the impact of economic freedom on self-reported health and racial health disparities. We use propensity score matching to construct a control group of whites who can be compared to blacks in the 2007, 2009, and 2011 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. After accounting for confounding variables and possible selection, we find evidence that economic freedom is associated with lower levels of self-reported health for the population overall. After allowing for the effects of economic freedom to differ by race, we find that higher levels of economic freedom mitigate the observed gap in health status.
ISSN:1091-1421
1552-7530
DOI:10.1177/1091142116687840