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Inequality and Childhood Mortality: a Comparison of England and Wales, 1911, and the United States, 1900
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 March 2009
Abstract
An index of childhood mortality is proposed as a good measure of socioeconomic well-being and inequality. The index is used to investigate the relationship between childhood mortality and occupation and income of parents. The sources consist of the 1900 United States Census public-use sample and the published 1911 Census of Marriage and Fertility of England and Wales. Results revealed more inequality in mortality and income across social-class groupings in England and Wales than in the United States. The outcome arose more because of relatively higher childhood mortality for white-collar groups in the United States than because of a better situation for blue-collar groups.
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References
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All but textile workers and native white agricultural laborers showed differences which were significant at least at a 5 percent level (two-tailed test)
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41 The effect of social class mortality rates versus the distribution of children ever born (that is, the “weights”) may be seen in the following example:Google Scholar
The use of weights reduces but does not eliminate the gap in the inequality measure. On the other hand the use of English social class child mortality rates with American weights results in a coefficient of variation (.30) far above that for the case with English weights and American rates (.11). The same is true when the 1911 English classes are used to calculate the coefficient of variation.
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