2002) Economic Status and Health in Childhood: The Origins of the GradientThe American Economic Review 92(5

The well-known positive association between health and income in adulthood has antecedents in childhood. Not only is children’s health positively related to house-hold income, but the relationship between household income and children’s health becomes more pronounced as children age. Part of the relationship can be ex-plained by the arrival and impact of chronic conditions. Children from lower-income households with chronic conditions have worse health than do those from higher-income households. The adverse health effects of lower income accumulate over children’s lives. Part of the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status may work through the impact of parents ’ income on children’s health. (JEL I1) That wealthy people live longer and have lower morbidity, on average, than do poor peo-ple has been well documented across countries, within countries at a point in time, and over time with economic growth. The positive cor-relation between income and health is not lim