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Seminar: Trevon Logan - The Ohio State University and NBER

Racial Disparities in Health: Physician Bias and Veterans’ Pensions
When Apr 29, 2019
from 12:00 PM to 01:00 PM
Where 1101 Morrill Hall
Contact Name
Contact Phone 301-405-6403
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About the Presentation

This is the first longitudinal analysis of the relationship between income and the black-white mortality gap in the late 19th and early 20th century US. Using records from cohorts of Civil War veterans, we estimate the effect of pension income on racial differences in longevity. Since veterans received pensions based on proof of disability at medical exams, estimates of the causal effect of income on mortality may be biased as sicker veterans received larger pensions, and the racial gap could be driven by physician bias. To circumvent endogeneity bias, we propose an exogenous source of variation in income: the judgment of the doctors who certified disability. We find that doctors appear to discriminate against black veterans and that the effect of income on health was indeed large enough to close the black-white mortality gap in the period. Our work emphasizes the large effects of physicians’ attitudes on racial differentials in health, which persist today amongst both veterans as well as regular citizens.

About the Speaker

Trevon Logan.2

Trevon D. Logan is the Hazel C. Youngberg Trustees Distinguished Professor of Economics at The Ohio State University. He specializes in economic history and applied demography. He also does work that intersects with health economics, applied econometrics, applied microeconomics, sports economics, and sociology.

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